I, Jedi Knight
by L van Am
Summary: A high-school girl is suddenly thrown into the world of KotOR 2. She joins the crew of the Ebon Hawk on their quest to defeat the Sith. First-person self-insert. Abandoned. Sorry.
1. Prologue

I, Jedi Knight

Prologue

It was just a day like any other, with a few differences. For one, it was winter, so it was very cold: for another, I was walking home from school.

"Damn Mr. Morrison!" I cursed under my breath. Go figure that the one day I can't find my uniform pants is the day he decides to come around to the classes and check uniforms. My high school is very strict about the uniforms, especially with us grade 9s. He had given me a half-hour after school detention meaning I had to walk the almost whole kilometre home. Plus, just to top it off, it was snowing. Worse, though, would be my mother's reaction when she found out I had gotten detention.

It was not the best day, by any standard.

Suddenly, as I was going up the hill to my house, I saw a shape move in the catwalk that leads to the forest behind my street. Of course I went to investigate. When I approached the shape, it fled into the forest. I gave chase.

I managed to catch up with the figure at the river. I thought I had it pinned at the creek, but as I watched, the figure took a few steps and leapt to the other bank, almost 3 metres away.

I stopped in my tracks. No ordinary human could jump so far. I just stared as the figure jumped back across the river and approached me.

"You are surprised," the figure said. Judging by the voice, the figure was an old woman.

Somehow I recognized that voice, although I could not place it. Mentally I ran through a list of my friends and family, but I was sure that no one I knew had that voice.

"Who... Who are you?" I asked.

"You do not recognize me. I expected as much." She raised a hand. "Sleep."

I immediately felt a wave of exhaustion come over me. The last thing I saw was a metal cylinder on her belt, and then everything went black.

The mysterious old woman looked down at me. "I will take us where we need to go. You are needed there more than you are here, if I am right about you."

Then she raised her hand again, and with a flash, we were gone.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> This is the first story I have ever written that was not submitted as a school project or kept for my own enjoyment. Please give me _constructive_ criticism. Also, I have not decided where to place myself in the KotOR 2 universe. The options are Peragus or the Harbinger, so if you review, please tell me your choice.


	2. On the Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Lucasarts or Obsidian, nor do I own any character except myself. (forgot to put this in the prologue)

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

On the Way

When I opened my eyes, I was in a small room. The walls were bare metal. In fact, the whole room was made of metal. The only things that showed that someone lived here were the bed I was sitting on, another bed on the far side of the room, and two small floor lockers.

"Where am I?" I thought. I looked around the room, but the bare walls gave no indication. I shrugged and got out of bed. A bag was sitting on the floor near the far locker. I opened it up and found a leather jacket, some kind of currency, and a gun that looked like a blaster from Star Wars.

"What is all this?" I thought.

Putting aside the jacket and the blaster-thing, I examined the currency. There was only one place I had ever seen anything like it…

I gasped. They looked like credits from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, my favourite game.

The familiarity bothered me. I examined the gun.

As I looked at it, I realized that it actually was a blaster.

"Okay," I thought. "Either I'm going crazy, or that is an actual blaster and I am somehow in Star Wars."

I put the credits and the blaster back in the bag and looked at the jacket. I recognized it. I knew who its owner was.

"Oh, crap," I muttered. It was a ribbed leather jacket. One that belonged to a scoundrel with a famous reputation.

Atton Rand.

I put the jacket back in the bag and put the bag where it belonged, then tried to open the on beside my bed, and it opened. There were things inside it. I then tried to open the footlocker beside it. It was locked.

"So that one's… someone else's," I thought. "Is this one mine then?"

I opened the unlocked locker again. There was a datapad on top of the things inside that read:

"These things are for you. Be wary. Danger lies ahead, but if you are careful, you will survive. There will be someone to protect you on Peragus until we meet." The note was unsigned, but it was clear that it was for me.

Inside the locker I found a vibroblade, a scout blaster, a set of clothing to replace my school uniform, some credits- about fifty, judging by the size of the pile- and a bag.

First things first. I decided to change before doing anything. With the clothes was my leather jacket. I hadn't expected to find it here since I hadn't had it with me on my way home from school.

I changed into the clothes and was just putting my uniform away when the door opened.

The person at the door was Atton Rand.

He started to walk into the room but stopped dead when he saw me.

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing in here?"

"I'm Laura. They told me I could use this room. I didn't know you were in here. Sorry."

"That's alright. Hmm…" He appeared to be thinking hard.

"If you're going to stand there thinking all night, I'm going to bed." I lay down and fell asleep. Almost immediately, I started dreaming.

In the dream, I was in a room. There were four beds along one wall. They were empty, but a person was sitting in the middle of the room on the floor. It was the old woman from the forest! I walked over to her. She stood up and turned to face me. When I saw her eyes, I gasped.

Her eyes were white. She had no pupils.

"I know you," I said. "You're Kreia. I didn't recognize you before."

"Yes. I had wanted you to recognize me, but your mind was on other things and you did not see me clearly."

"Why am I here?"

"Surprising that this is your first question." She looked at me, or at least in my direction. I wasn't sure if she could see me through the Force. "I cannot answer that question yet."

"What?"

"I do not entirely know your purpose here. I do know that your potential has caused the Force to single you out over your planet. I do not know what that potential is, nor what will happen here."

"Where is here?" I asked, although I didn't expect a straight answer. According to the game, for Kreia to give a straight answer would take a miracle.

True to form, her answer was cryptic. "You know where you are, in a sense."

"That's specific," I muttered. Then I thought: credits, blaster… Then I had seen Atton, and Kreia being cryptic and talking about the Force…

So I was in Knights of the Old Republic II after all.

Kreia, sensing me coming to a conclusion, nodded.

"This place is real," I whispered. "For a while there, I thought I was just dreaming." But now another question was nagging me. "How do I get home?"

"You will be unable to return until your time here is up and your purpose is fulfilled. I do not know when that will be. As for your other questions, I am unable to answer them. Suffice it to say that when we speak next, the situation will be clearer."

"Everything you say just raises more questions," I muttered. "None of this is helping."

"The Force does not give all of the answers."

"Neither do you."

Kreia laughed, a strange sound. "You have some wit and a sense of humour. You will need it in the times to come. There are difficult months ahead. Be prepared."

"One last thing. Was that note from you?"

"You are observant and intelligent as well. Yes, it was." She looked directly at me, her eyes meeting mine. "When you wake, you will be at Peragus. There will be someone to protect you there. Trust him, and trust your instincts. We will meet soon." The room, and her, began to fade.

"Wait!" I called. "Who is it?"

"Watch the people around you. He will make himself known to you by his actions." With those words, the scene faded to black. A few moments later, I awoke, and like Kreia had said, we were at Peragus.

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><p>AN Sorry about the wait. Being in high school, I tend to have a lot of homework, and I am a pretty slow typer. Thanks to Thereyen and SPARTAN-189 for reviewing. Chapter 2 should come soon. I've already written up to chapter 3 and am in the process of writing chapter 4.


	3. Welcoming Committee

Disclaimer: I don't own Lucasart, Obsidian, or any character except myself.

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

Welcoming Committee

"Hey, wake up." The voice was coming from somewhere above my head. "Come on, we have to get off the ship. We're at Peragus."

I opened my eyes to find I was face-to-face with Atton, which was kind of creepy and cool at the same time.

"I'm getting up," I grumbled. I got out of bed, pulled on my jacket and put the rest of my things in my bag. On the other side of the room, Atton was doing the same thing. When all of our stuff was packed, he opened the door.

"Follow me," he said. I didn't complain.

When we got off the ship, a security officer came up to us. "Follow me," he said. "Everyone entering the Peragus Mining Facility must be checked for blasters and other weapons."

"There's no way I'm giving up my blaster," Atton said.

"You won't need it here. Peragus is safe. It's not like you're going to be attacked while you're here." The security officer held out his hand.

"Why do we have to give them up?" I asked, trying to ease the tension.

He looked at me like I was a huge moron. "Weren't you paying attention to the security briefing on the transport?"

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I must have fallen asleep." To my right, I heard Atton stifle a laugh.

The officer sighed. "The fuel in the Peragus asteroid field is highly flammable. One stray blaster shot could make the whole field blow up."

"Comforting," I muttered. "Alright. Here." I handed him my blaster. "Do you need my vibroblade as well?"

"Yes. Anything that could be used to harm another person, we have to confiscate."

I handed him my vibroblade and moved to where the other miners were.

"Hey, look at this." I heard a voice behind me and turned around. One of the men was talking to another.

"She's just a kid, Coorta. It's not a good idea," I heard another miner say.

"What do I care? It's been a long time since there was a woman in the tunnels." He looked at me, seemingly not surprised that I was listening. Or he just didn't care. I couldn't tell. "You, come here," he said to me.

"Hey, leave her alone." From the door to the security area came Atton.

Coorta laughed. "You're obviously new here, because you don't know the rules. I get what I want, when I want, her included. So back off unless you want trouble."

"You want a fight? Try it," Atton said, dropping into a fighting stance.

Coorta looked like he was about to attack him, but one of the miners beside him said, "Coorta, it's not worth it. You'll get her later."

Coorta looked at him, then at me, then at Atton. "I won't forget this. You," he said, pointing at me, "you'd better watch it. You'll beg me for mercy."

"Over my dead body," I growled.

"That can be arranged," he said, then walked away.

Atton came over to me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "But… I don't even know who you are. Why are you protecting me?"

"I'm Atton. Atton Rand… How old are you?"

"Young." He glared at me. "Alright, alright, I'm a teenager. Why?"

He rolled his eyes and sighed, but continued. "You look like you need it. No offense, but you look like you don't know anything about where you are- not just Peragus, but the galaxy in general. You look kind of helpless."

"I can take care of myself."

"Sure didn't look that way."

I had to give him that one, but still. "Just leave me alone."

"If I leave you alone, he'll kill you. You heard him." He seemed very eager to help me. It was kind of nice, to know that someone cared in this world, even if that person was a scoundrel who might ditch at any time.

"If you're so eager to help," I said, "fine."

I guess I could have gotten a worse protector. I didn't know what was coming, but then, who does?

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><p>AN: Sorry about the time it takes me to upload chapters. I'm not a very fast typer, plus, it's mid-term, which means my art teacher thinks it's a good idea to give us 4 assignments at once, no joke. Just be patient, you'll get more soon!


	4. Prisoners

Disclaimer: I don't own any character, setting, etc. mentioned except for me. I also do not own Lucasarts or Obsidian, or any part of them.

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

Prisoners

Over the next few days, those of us who showed up on the transport were shown around the facility, shown where we would work, sleep, etc. We were also reminded about three thousand times that one clumsy mistake could blow up the field, and us.

As to where we would sleep, I was sharing a dormitory with Atton and a couple of other people from the transport. Since I didn't know much about it, my gallant defender was teaching me a little bit about the galaxy, about the wars, and the situation with the Republic in general. I really did need it, as he was quick to remind me at every given opportunity. Things were more complicated than they seemed in the game.

A while passed with no major incidents. The trouble started about two weeks after we arrived, when a miner was killed by a sonic charge.

The thing was, the charge had been laid in the part of the asteroid that I had been working in.

Naturally, unfortunately, and unavoidably, they suspected me. The charge that had killed the man had actually been laid by a mining droid, but they didn't believe that. That day, in my dormitory after my shift ended and I was in my normal clothing, they arrested me, brought me up to the administration level, and locked me in a force cage.

"This isn't fair! I didn't lay that charge! I'm innocent!"

"That's what they all say," they sneered before leaving and locking the door.

I soon learned that prison is worse than it's made out to be, especially when you're alone with no one to talk to but the walls. I just sat there doing nothing.

I had been sitting there a while and had decided that it would be a good idea to stand and stretch when the door opened. It startled me so badly that I jumped to my feet. It was Atton. He was carrying a tray of food. Before he did anything else, he turned and locked the door.

"Don't die of fear, it's only me," he smirked.

"Meh. Anything interesting happen while I've been in here?"

"Not really. I got given this job, that's about it."

" Did they find out who the dead miner is yet?"

"All I know about it is that the miner was one of the ones who hung around Coorta. One of the ones who was really interested in selling the Jedi to the Exchange."

"Oh," I said softly. The ship had arrived just a few days ago with three droids, a couple of corpses, and a woman. Some of the miners said that they had served in the Mandalorian Wars with her, that she was a Jedi. Then, of course, some genius miner had remembered the Exchange bounty on Jedi, and now it was practically a civil war. I didn't want them to sell the Jedi, of course, but I kept way out of the conflict. "Did she wake up yet?"

He sighed. "No, she's still in med bay. Whoever she is, she can't stop them."

"I thought that Jedi were tough. I thought they were supposed to help people, not start a civil war just by being there," I mumbled. I took the tray from Atton and started eating, He didn't say anything. It looked like he was thinking or something.

When I was done, he took the tray and, locked me back in the force cage, and left without saying anything, which wasn't like him. I sighed. He might have at least said something before leaving me to endure another few hours alone.

A few more days passed like this, except that a different person brought my meals. One night- I think it was night, it was hard to tell- I was woken up by shouting outside the door. It opened and I saw Atton being dragged into the prison, clearly against his will.

"Let go of me! I haven't done anything wrong!" He shouted.

"What the…" I said. "What did he do to end up in here?"

"Another two miners were killed by a sonic charge where he was working."

"I didn't set that charge, I already told you! There are droids working that claim with me, one of them laid it! Check the records!"

"We did. None of the droids working that claim have any memory of planting that charge. You're clearly guilty." They pushed him into a force cage and activated it, then left.

"Schuttas," Atton muttered.

"Calm down" I told him.

"You don't-"

"Yes I do," I interrupted him. "I was accused of killing someone. These won't be the last deaths."

He started. "What? How do you know?"

"Look at the facts. Three-"

"Six," Atton interrupted. "Three more were killed when some mining droids went on a rampage."

"Six then," I continued. "Six miners are dead now, and two more are in prison. Someone wants us out of the way."

"Coorta. He wants us out of the way so he can sell the Jedi to the Exchange."

"Maybe," I agreed. I didn't want to parade the fact that I knew what would happen before it did. That would just lead to trouble. "So what do we do?"

"I don't think there's anything we _can _do."

"So we wait?" I asked.

"We wait," he agreed.

We didn't have to wait long.

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><p>AN: I'm so sorry I let the wait for an update get to a month. I have nothing to blame but my own laziness. And considering the size of the cliffhanger I just gave you, you'll be happy to know that I don't intend on waiting this long for my next update. Keep reading and reviewing. Peace out.


	5. Jedi in the Tunnels

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter Four<p>

Jedi in the Tunnels

A time passed- Atton told me it was a week, but I wasn't sure. He did have a chrono though. I hadn't eaten in... I think about three days. I was trying to ignore it and sleep, and was almost there, but then the door opened and a woman walked in. I stood up and looked at her.

She was about my height- around 5'6"- with silvery green eyes and bright red hair in a high ponytail. She had fair skin, with freckles on her arms and face, and she wasn't wearing anything except her underwear. I realized almost immediately that she was the Jedi from medbay.

"Nice outfit. What, you miners change regulation uniforms while I've been in here?"

I sighed. Typical Atton.

"Keep those eyes up, and tell me who you are," she replied.

"Atton. Atton Rand. Excuse me if I don't shake hands. The field only causes mild electrical burns."

"And you are?" She asked me.

"I'm Laura."

"No last name?"

"I'm not as trusting as he is." I indicated Atton. "I'm not as interested in women, either."

"Shut up," he grumbled.

The woman laughed. "You two know each other?"

"Unfortunately for me, yes." I chuckled. "But yeah, we do know each other." I looked at her carefully, trying to judge whether she was dark or light side. "Who are you?"

"I'm Teri, "she said.

"No last name?"

"I'm not very trusting," she replied, parroting me.

"I like to think I'm trustworthy, though."

"Am I missing something here?" Atton asked.

"Atton, you were missing something when you were born," I told him.

The Jedi looked at me. "How old are you?"

"3012," I replied.

"And I'm a Wookiee's uncle," she retorted.

"That's physically impossible," I pointed out.

She made a frustrated sound. "Do you irritate everyone this way?"

"Yes," Atton offered.

She sighed. "Fine. My name is Teri Brewso."

I snickered. "Nice name."

She sighed again. "So where are we, anyway?"

"You mean you didn't come here on purpose?" Atton put on a fake expression of shock. "I'm shocked, I really am. This slice of paradise is the Peragus Mining Facility, the only producer of shipping-grade engine fuel in this corner of the galaxy."

"It's not a particularly interesting corner of the galaxy, but if you have no choice, it's better than vacuum."

"You said this was a mining facility," she said to Atton. "Where are all the miners?"

"How should I know? They probably all got drunk and decided to jump out the airlock."

"Then why are there corpses all over the place?"

"There are?" He looked at me. "Guess you were right after all."

"I knew I would be," I said. "I had hoped not, but..."

"Now I'm confused, "Teri said.

"A few days ago, we were talking about some miners who had recently died. I said that they wouldn't be the last." I frowned in thought. "Come to think of it, we were also talking about the Jedi in medbay..."

"Wait a minute," Atton said. "You're that Jedi, aren't you?"

"It took you that long to figure that out?" I mumbled. "Seriously, it didn't take me half that long."

He glared at me, then continued. "If you're awake, and everyone else is dead... Look, let us out of here, and I can help you. I've gotten out of trouble countless times."

"Tell me your plan, and we can go from there."

"Is the facility in emergency lockdown?" She nodded. "I can shut it down and open a route to the hangar. We can grab a ship and fly out of here."

"All right, I'll let you out." She shut down the force cages and opened the door to administration. We jogged to the computers. Atton reached them first and started to work, muttering incomprehensibly to himself.

"Now to cancel the lockdown, and- hey!"

"What is it?" Teri asked.

"I'm locked out of the system. I can't even fix it; it's been locked down by remote. The only thing we have is communications, for all the good shouting in a vacuum is going to do us."

"Here, let me use it," Teri said. "We might be able to contact the miners. Maybe they can help us out."

"Be my guest, the console's all yours."

Teri fiddled with the computer for a few minutes. Finally, she managed to get a signal with the comm. I heard some high-pitched beeps from the console and thought that it was malfunctioning until I realized that those were the kinds of sounds that T3-M4 made.

"Are you functioning?" Teri said into the comm. I heard more beeps and she replied, "Do a diagnostic, then follow my instructions." More beeps. "We're trapped on the administration level. Can you find a way to open a route to the hangar?" Beep. "Call me on the comm when you've opened a route."

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"I found some help. A utility droid who'll get us off this level."

"Excellent."

About an hour later, we heard another sound from the console- lower-pitched beeps. On the screen, I saw a camera view of a door in a corridor, which opened. The only catch was, the door didn't lead to the hangar, it lead to the mining tunnels.

I was trying to figure out why the droid had opened the mining tunnel hatch when I realized that that was what had happened in the game. Atton and Teri were arguing in the background while I tried to remember what happened in the mining tunnels and on the rest of Peragus. By the time I had remembered, they were wrapping up the argument. It seemed that they were arguing about the possibility of Teri going into the tunnels to get us out of here.

"I think she should go," I cut through their arguing. Both of them turned towards me, suddenly silent.

"Someone needs to save our skins, and if she volunteered, I'm not gonna argue."

"Then it's settled." Teri seemed a bit smug.

"Fine... But one last thing. Take this. It's a comlink. It'll help us reach you if we need you for any reason." She took the comlink and disappeared.

"We might as well rest a while," Atton said to me. "She won't need us too soon."

"Good point," I said. I sat down on one of the chairs near the console, closed my eyes, and fell right asleep.

* * *

><p>I didn't wake up until Atton spoke into the comm. "Now your signal's coming in clear. I had lost it for a while. Only now i'm picking you up outside the station, on the asteroid's surface. That can't be right."<p>

"Oh really? Maybe you should look up," came Teri's voice in reply. I grinned. I love that line.

"Huh? What are you doing out there?"

"I'm just taking a relaxing walk. What do you think I'm doing?" I grinned even wider.

"Well whatever you're doing, you need to get out of there."

"I'm trying to pick up the pace, believe me."

"The exterior vents are active. They're venting Peragian fuel deposits right into your path."

"How could that have happened? They were fine a few minutes ago..." She cursed. Ï knew there was something wrong with that droid," she muttered under her breath.

"Which one? The utility droid?" I asked.

"No, a protocol droid I met in the tunnels. It said it knew me, for some reason..."

"Well, whatever. You should probably keep going... Oh, what now!" Atton yelled. "I don't believe this. There's a ship coming in, sending a docking code. I have a bad feeling about this."

The ship in question was, of course, the Harbinger. "I have a worse feeling about this," I mumbled. The one who was on that ship was no surprise to me, but the feeling of darkness washing over me was. I had no idea that the world could feel that hopeless. I also had no idea that I could feel things that strongly.

When the ship had finally come to the end of its dramatic docking procedures, Teri said, "I'm gonna keep moving. I'll be back on the administration level if I find a way to the hangar."

"All right. See you then." I said. Atton turned the comm off. "We should get ready for when she shows up."

"Get ready for what, exactly?" He asked.

"Do you actually think she'll be able to get to the hangar? No offense to her or anything, but I think the odds are against her."

"You're probably right," he agreed.

"Do you know where the security office might be?"

"No, but the computer might." He took a spare datapad from his bag and plugged it into the computer. He handed it to me a few minutes later. "This has the layout of the administration level on it. Why do you need to go to the security office?"

"They might have my weapons," I said over my shoulder as I walked in the direction of the office.

I managed to open one of the lockers in the office and found a vibroblade and two standard blasters. I brought them back to the administration console and showed them to Atton.

"You want the blasters or the blade?" I asked.

"Blasters," he replied, taking them from me and putting one in the holster at his belt.

"Whatever you say. Just watch your aim."

"I can shoot a moving target across a room with my eyes closed," he bragged. "You don't have to worry about my aim."

"I'm still worrying," I said under my breath. He apparently heard me, because he gave me a look.

One hour of restless pacing later, Teri showed up with a cloaked person in tow. When I saw the other person, my heart skipped a beat.

It was Kreia. Face-to-face at last.

"Who's this? Another Jedi? What, did you two suddenly start breeding while I wasn't looking?"

"Atton, there's no time. Grab a weapon and let's go."

"Uh, all right. I assume that means bad news."

"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skill with a blaster, or I fear our time together will be short indeed." Kreia spoke for the first time.

"Yeah, and I'm also good at running and drinking, Your Majesty. Who is this joker?" He asked, drawing his second blaster.

"Where exactly are we supposed to go?" I asked, ignoring Atton.

"We're going to get on the ship that just docked to skip running through the facility on a useless chase to find a door to the hangar."

"Works for me," I said. "Let's go."

We didn't get too far, though.

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><p><strong>AN: **For those of you that are regular readers (if I have any left) I'm sorry. That's all I can say. I was trying to make the lines exactly the same as those in the game, but I couldn't find the disc and the tlk file (the file with all the dialogue in the game) was impossible to find any specific line on, so sorry.

On an unrelated note, Teri's last name is an anagram for the name of one of my favourite characters. Anyone who can tell me the name of the character will win a special prize! The prize is... eternal bragging rights! Enjoy! And please review. Don't just be a ghost reader! Any kind of review is accepted, even flames.


	6. Harbinger of Doom

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

Harbinger of Doom

"Good thing we have a clear run to the shi-" Atton was cut off by a droid.

"Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke. I suggested that you should shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue." I spun towards the source of the voice. It was HK-50, the droid Teri had mentioned meeting in the mining tunnels. Well, okay, she hadn't actually mentioned him (it?) by name, but having played Kotor 2 a million times... You get the picture.

"No, you were clear, I just don't listen to assassin droids. Especially ones who try to murder me as soon as I leave their sight." Teri clearly hated this droid. I wondered how she knew that he had killed the miners.

"Statement: Master, 'assassin droid' is a term used for droids upgraded with only the most archaic of kill programs. My function has been referred to as 'wanton slaughter'."

"I don't care what it's referred to as, there was still no reason to kill those miners."

"Teri, I don't think arguing with an assassin droid is going to help us get out of here quickly," I said. "Let's just destroy it and leave."

"Good idea," Atton said, taking a shot at the droid.

"Expletive: Die!" The droid suddenly produced a blaster rifle (or something to that effect) from seemingly nowhere. I ran up close to attack it with my vibroblade when four floating mines uncloaked in the air around the droid. One of them floated up towards me - they were quick little suckers - and suddenly exploded about four feet away. I looked behind me to see that Atton had one of his blasters pointed where the mine had just been. He looked behind me and his expression changed.

"Get down!" He yelled to me. I immediately dropped to the floor as he fired a shot over my head at another mine.

"Watch your back next time!" He called as I avoided the other mines and the shots that HK-50 was firing at random and finally got to where I had been trying to get to - close enough to hit something.

"Self-destruct sequence activated," the droid said before I had even hit him.

"Oh, not good," I muttered. I was the only one around - Kreia and Teri were fighting from afar - so I swung my vibroblade as hard as I could. My first swing hit his arm. My second hit his neck and sliced the head right off. The head flew towards the wall and the body dropped to the ground, sparks flying from the neck.

"Nice one, Laura," Teri said as she came up behind me and checked the destroyed droid for any usable equipment.

"Yeah. What do we do next?"

"We get on that ship."

"The Harbinger. An apt name..." I didn't realize I was thinking out loud.

"What?" Atton and Teri spoke in unison. Kreia just looked at me with a look on her face that told me she knew what I was talking about. I wonder what else she knew about me... I would have to ask her when we got back to the Hawk.

"Nothing. Let's keep moving." We ran up to the docking bay and onto the ship.

I was trailing a little ways behind the others, and so I didn't realize that the others were arguing until I nearly walked into Kreia, who was standing almost right in front of the airlock.

"Then what are we doing on this ship? We were better off in the facility!"

"Yeah, if you want to get shot by mining droids, blown up, or both," I interrupted. "Peragus is doomed. Especially if whoever got to this ship decides to hit it next."

"The child speaks the truth. Our enemies are drawing near. They will destroy the facility in their attempt to destroy us." Well, it was good to get some support, especially from Kreia. It also helped me avoid any weird looks from anyone. But if she was going to call me "the child" for the whole quest, I was gonna end up throwing her out an airlock at some point. It was already getting old, and she had only used it once. I guess it was better than "fool", though.

"We might be able to avoid that if we knew who and where our enemies are," Teri said in a tone that made it clear she was frustrated with Kreia. "Enough cryptic words. Who are these enemies?"

"You will find out in due time, sooner if we do not move."

"Where do we go? The only way off this ship is back where we came from!" Atton was getting seriously near anger. If I had poked him with a stick, I swear to God he would have exploded. "You two are supposed to be Jedi? You two are the worst Jedi I've ever met!"

"Where would you have met Jedi?" I asked under my breath. He turned and glared at me, the angry look on his face telling me to shut up immediately.

"When this ship docked, I saw a fuel line connect from the fuel depot. We can get to the hangar from there if we go through the fuel line."

"Even if we could get to the hangar and find a ship, it wouldn't matter. We'd need the orbital drift charts to clear the asteroid fields, unless you want to have the shortest flight out of Peragus ever recorded."

"What about this ship? How did they get through the field?"

"Well, they have the orbital drift charts. They'd have to."

"So let's get the charts from the navicomputer here. We can worry later about how to get off the station." After she said this, she stood there for a moment thinking.

Normally at this point in the game, there was a little blurb about party members and influencing them to your alignment, but since this wasn't Kotor 2 by far, I had no idea what she was thinking. All I knew was that Kreia would say...

"Our enemies gather while we wait here." I was tempted to say it along with her, but I think that would scare the others.

"Forgive me Kreia, I was distracted for a moment."

"Very well."

I had used that line before, almost every time I played through the game, because it gained influence with Kreia, and it appeared to have the same effect here. It was almost like she charmed us, I realized, and I immediately vowed that I wouldn't be influenced to the point of giving up my secrets the second she asked for them. I trusted her to not turn on me or get me killed, but my true respect - and my back story - was something she would have to earn.

So we traveled around the Harbinger after uploading the orbital drift charts onto a spare datapad. We followed Teri around as if she had an idea of where she was going. She seemed to, but I guess the ability to fake an air of confidence is a necessity to be a good leader.

The ambushes from random stealthed assassins weren't much fun. We did manage to kill them all, though. For my part, I was terrified. Of the assassins, of the fights themselves. Every move I made could easily have been my last, and I knew that very well, but I fought anyway. I had to. If I didn't, the only thing that awaited me was certain death. I guess the fact that I had no real training, or any real idea what I was doing, with a vibroblade didn't help my emotions - or my body count.

The only noteworthy thing that happened - besides the ambushes - on the Harbinger before the engine level events was Teri finding her room. She just stopped all of a sudden in front of an unmarked door, nearly causing me to ram headfirst into her back end.

"What is it? Why are we stopping?" Atton's tone was urgent. He apparently wanted to get off this ship as soon as possible.

"Just... This was my room."

"This was your room? When?"

"Before the Harbinger was attacked and I ended up on Peragus."

"Whatever you intend to do, do it quickly." Kreia evidently wasn't interested in staying on the ship longer than necessary, either."

"No point in being a long time anyway," I said. Going through the Harbinger on the game had always given me the creeps, and it was worse here. All I could smell were the dead Republic soldiers, which didn't make it any better.

She went into the room, opened a plasteel cylinder, grabbed her stuff, and came back out.

"Let's go," she said.

On the engine deck, about half an hour later, I was seriously starting to hate this stupid ship. At least I didn't have to be on it much longer.

We got past the first room and started to turn a corner in the next when we heard heavy footsteps behind us. We all turned around.

The footsteps belonged to Darth Sion. Damn, I had almost forgotten about him.

"Keep going. I will face him alone." Well, I hadn't forgotten about that. Kreia was still the crazy old witch she was in the game, so of course that would happen.

"He'll murder you!" Teri seemed really worried. I guess I would be too if I hadn't known she would do that. And what Kreia actually is.

"He cannot kill what he cannot see, and power has blinded him long ago. Run. I shall be along shortly." She produced a vibrosword from nowhere, ran into the room with Sion, and locked the door behind her.

"Yeah, right, she'll be along shortly," I said with sarcasm clear in my tone. Teri, meanwhile, looked ready to break down the door and kill Sion herself.

""He's gonna kill her! What am I going to do without a mentor! She's an idiot!"

"She'll be fine. That old witch's tough as hell," I told her, turning away from the door. "We have to keep moving."

She stared at me as if she wanted to punch me. If she tried, I'd knock her out and drag her to the Hawk. She calmed down after a bit, though.

"Okay. Let's go." We went through the corridors to the engine room, only to find that the door was controlled by a nearby console. We found the console in a nearby storage room, and Atton managed to hack into it and open the door. We got to the engine, where the fuel line was, and were at the entrance to the line when Teri suddenly grabbed her left hand and fell to her knees screaming as though it had just been cut off.

Oh, yeah. It kind of was. I mean, Teri's hand was fine, but...

"What is it? What's wrong?" Atton was frantic. "Damnit, hold on, it's only a little farther. Don't give up on me now!"

In a few minutes, she stopped clutching her wrist as hard and stood up, a little shakily.

"What happened?" Atton asked.

"My hand... felt like it was being dipped in molten carbonite. I think Kreia's hurt."

"You look fine to me. And not to be insensitive, but any kind of distraction that Kreia's providing is to help us get out of here. She'll be fine. Let's go." Atton seemed really nervous about something, and I didn't know what it was. I wondered, but I didn't ask.

"Ugh, it smells terrible in here," I muttered as we went through the pipe. It was just barely big enough for Atton to fit through, and really dark and insanely smelly, so it wasn't a fun trip. Near the end, where we found T3-M4, the pipe widened out enough for me and Teri to walk side-by-side.

"What's that?" Teri asked, as T3 came into view.

"It's a utility droid. Looks like it was hit with an ion charge and dumped here," Atton said, bending over to look at it, then jumping back as it raised its (for lack of a better word) head.

"I'm going to take a guess that this is the same droid that opened the hatch to the mining tunnels."

Teri spoke to it (him? I'm going to call T3 him), telling him that it wasn't his fault and that we were ambushed by HK-50 too. Apparently she could understand all the beeping because she answered everything he said. I couldn't understand him myself, and I doubted I'd ever learn.

Evidently he told her where to go from here to get to the hangar, because when she was done talking, she told us, "I know where to go. Follow me."

We made our way through the fuel depot to the decontamination chamber, which was pretty much acting like a gas chamber, thanks to HK-50's sabotage. We managed to shut it down and kept going until we finally reached the hangar.

As we walked through the door and I saw the Ebon Hawk for the first time, I was... awestruck. It's a lot bigger than it looks in the game, and I mean a lot bigger. It was probably around three times as tall as me, and about five or six times as wide as I was tall. Beyond that, it was home free. Our escape route. Our way to get the hell off this station.

We ran up the already-open loading ramp directly into the cockpit. Atton took the pilot's seat. I looked past the viewport and saw Sith soldiers surrounding the ship.

"It'll take the engine a little while to warm up. Why don't you go give the laser turret a little workout?" He asked Teri. She nodded and ran to find the turret controls. I headed off to the main hold to take care of any Sith that made it past her. Apparently Teri was a pretty good shot because only two or three Sith made it to me.

Finally, the engines were ready. "Hold on!" Atton yelled from the cockpit. "This is gonna get a little rocky!" I was going to run back to the cockpit, but I barely had time to plant myself in one of the chairs in the hold before the acceleration knocked me over.

When the ship steadied out a little, after we had made it into hyperspace, I returned to the cockpit. The first thing I saw was Kreia.

"How the hell did you make it before we got off Peragus?" And how did you get past me without me noticing, I added in my head.

She ignored me. Apparently I had missed the situation explanation conversation (how's that for alliteration?) because she said, "I have had enough of this. If you wish to speak more of this, I shall be in the crew quarters."

"Aww, don't stop your long, boring rants on my account. I was just getting sleepy-eyed," Atton said. He was clearly uninterested in the conversation, but was looking to irritate Kreia a little more. He was pretty good at that. I wondered if he had ever had siblings.

"Also in private, we will be mercifully free of the opinions of imbeciles and fools."

"Ouch," I said, faking a wounded expression.

She turned and looked at me. "If you are so inclined, you may come and speak after." She then turned and walked away.

"Hmm," I said to no one in particular. "Maybe I will."

Atton turned to Teri. "Maybe you should go check on our passenger, make sure she's all right."

"She looked fine to me," Teri replied.

"Are you kidding? The pain was practically rolling off her. If I were her, I'd be screaming like a stuck mynock. Well, a very strong, manly mynock."

"Oh yeah, very manly. You'd be on the floor, crying your eyes out," I said, rolling my eyes and grinning. I thought he'd end up saying that.

Teri chuckled. "That was pretty quick."

"I have brothers. They taught me well."

"Apparently. I guess I'll go check on Kreia, then." She left the cockpit.

I moved to sit in the copilot's chair, but Atton looked at me and said, "If you want to sit there, you'll actually have to do the copilot's job."

"All right then," I said, and sat in the seat behind it. "Since I'd probably screw something up if I touched anything, I guess I'll sit back here."

"I was only joking. It's just a seat. Not much to do right now, anyway." He leaned back and put his feet up on the instrument panel, careful not to hit any of the controls. I moved up to the copilot's chair.

Since there wasn't much else to do, I decided that as soon as Teri was done with Kreia, I would talk to her. I wondered what we would talk about though. Probably some heavy subject like life, destiny, or my chances of ever getting home.

Home. I missed it. How long had it been since I came here? Three weeks? A month? I wondered if time was passing at home. Hmm... I guess I'd never know. Or I'd find out during my conversation with Kreia.

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><p><strong>AN:** 2875 words without disclaimer or author's notes. I'm pretty proud of myself. This is my longest chapter so far... maybe I should throw a party. Meh. This was probably the most difficult chapter to actually get typed out. My motivation level was very low on this chapter, but now that it's finished, that means that Peragus is finally over. I hate doing Peragus. But... I think I heard somewhere in someone else's story that "Peragus is so boring that everybody complains about it, but Telos is so boring that everyone forgets to complain about it." ... Now I don't want to do Telos. But the show (or story) must go on, and so it will. Okay, rant's over.

Please review. Don't be a ghostreader. Even flames are accepted. Anything you have to say will be taken into account and probably replied to as well!


	7. Conversations

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter 6<p>

Conversations

About half an hour - or so it felt - later, Teri came back into the cockpit and struck up a conversation with Atton. I debated whether I wanted to hear the two talking or speak to Kreia instead. On one hand, I had heard the cockpit conversation before, and I might learn something from her. On the other hand, the cockpit conversation was funny, and Kreia was an annoying old witch... I decided to talk to Kreia.

I stood up and left the cockpit. I saw Atton watching me leave, but he didn't say anything.

When I got to the port dormitory, Kreia stood up and turned to face me, giving me a full view of her eyes. Ugh, creepy. The first time I saw those eyes in the game was in a dark room at night. Not a wise decision. They still creeped me out.

"So you came, as I knew you would."

"If you knew I was coming, why did you say anything?" I wasn't interested in pleasantries. I wanted answers.

She ignored my question. "The answers you want will be difficult to find."

"Stay out of my head," I growled. "I don't know what you're doing in there and I don't want blackmail."

"I cannot influence your thoughts-"

"You're quite capable. I'm not stupid."

She glared at me. "Your thoughts are impervious. I cannot change the way you think, although I hope I can change the way you speak to me."

"It's not as though you really deserve my respect anyway." I considered for a moment who I was talking to. There were two things I was thinking about. One was that she might be my only way of getting home. The other was the game. We were at a stalemate. She knew that I knew what she was, and that I wasn't afraid to warn Teri, but she held my home above my head.

Damn. I hate being at even odds with lying, manipulative Sith. But I didn't really want to be stuck here for the rest of my life...

"Fine," I said. "I'll play along."

"Then ask your questions, and I will answer what I can."

"As compared to not answering?" I muttered. "Okay... Does - is time still going by at - on Earth?"

"Just as time passes by here, it passes on your backwards planet." She didn't seem interested in Earth. That didn't surprise me. The answer surprised me.

Most of the time, when I thought about whether other worlds existed and whether people would be able to get there, I figured time would stop or go a lot slower at home. That left two possible ways that I could have gotten here. One was that we had crossed space - and possibly time - in the same universe as Earth. The other was that we were in an alternate universe.

Another mystery? Really? These things were starting to become a constant.

"It is hardly a mystery to be caught up in. What is important is the now. The past is dead."

I was seriously getting mad now. "I know that my life, family, and planet are insignificant to you, but they are everything to me. It matters."

"Will it matter if you cannot return? Or will you simply forget your world, your family, these things that you profess to be so important to you?"

"I... don't know the answer to that question. I hope I'll never have to find out." If I got stuck in Star Wars, how would I remember the good things about my life on Earth? Cookies, Mom's hugs, Nickelback, French, Science class, my friends... The list was endless. To have that all leave would kill me. To not be able to remember anything of what life was like there... I guess that other things would happen here, but none of it could replace my home.

"You fear to lose these things, as only a fool would."

"I disagree. Anyone whose emotions functioned normally - any human, anyway - would react this way to losing all that they've ever known. You might not realize, but that might be because your only company for the last, I don't know, few years has been Sion and Nihilus, and I wouldn't exactly call them normal."

"Fool! You do not know what you speak of."

"Hmm," I grunted. "Maybe not, but your past... I'll leave that mess to Teri, I think. I'd rather not hear it." I turned to leave.

"Are you, like the fool, so quickly bored by something that you will leave it before too long?"

I turned back around. "No, I have little patience for cryptic old witches and their derision towards me or the world, or anything else for that matter. Despite the fact that I still have questions I want answered, I'm willing to give those up in exchange for not having to listen to you anymore."

"I doubt that," she said dryly. "Your incessant need for knowledge will not allow you to focus on anything else while your questions remain unanswered."

Ugh. She sounded as if she's known me my entire life, even though we'd been traveling together for maybe five or six hours at most. Having the ability to read someone's every thought must help with that, though.

"Hmm... What to do," I mumbled under my breath. "On one hand, I could leave now and keep my sanity for another day, or I could ask another question and run the risk of mockery, but finally find something useful out... Difficult decisions. I guess I'll ask something else." I turned my attention back to Kreia. "Out of all the people on Earth, over far better candidates, why the hell did the Force choose me for this quest? And what's the point? The Exile can handle this stuff without the help of some random kid from another world."

"I have no answer to that question, as I told you before. I can tell this much, however: the reason has something to do with your Force sensitivity."

Wait a second. "I'm Force sensitive?"

"You have the potential to wield the Force, with proper training."

"But let me guess: you won't train me, and Teri won't train me without extensive questioning." Kreia was silent, but her facial expression told me yes. How can a person with completely blank eyes have a facial expression? I don't know. I groaned. "Great. One thing goes right in this mess, and I can't even use it." I tuned to leave again. "I guess I'm finished here then."

As I walked back to the cockpit, the only thing on my mind was my Force sensitivity. Ever since I had first seen the Star Wars movies, I had dreamed of being able to use the Force. Doesn't everyone, though? I still didn't know what I was doing here, but I had found something to do with my time, at least.

"Something up?" Atton asked me as I sat in the copilot's seat.

"No, why?"

"You just look a little preoccupied." As he spoke, he was gathering up a deck of pazaak cards.

"You're one to talk," I said. "What were you doing?"

"Playing pazaak."

"Can you show me?"

He groaned. "Must I? Teri just finished beating me."

"Yes, you must," I grinned. "I'll probably be terrible anyway, so it'll be a boost for your ego."

"True." We sat on the floor and he went over the rules of the game, then we had a practice game, which I won. He won the next game, though. And the next one, then the next one, too. We played and played, and waited to arrive at Telos.

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><p><strong>AN:** So this chapter's a bit shorter, and it doesn't invlove Telos at all. Hah hah! You'll have to wait a little longer. It shouldn't be long though - I'm already partway through the first Telos chapter. Maybe a week or two.

A question for you: do you think that the way I write myself seems a bit Mary Sue-ish? I took a couple of tests, but none of them account for self inserts. Case in point: the first questions on all the tests I took was "is the character named after you?" Really annoying. So please answer!

Review! You know you want to... The button's right there. One little click and a couple of words are all it takes to make me happy and motivated to write! Don't just ghostread!


	8. Telos Finally

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter 7<p>

Telos... Finally

"I wonder if the Telosian authorities will know about Peragus?" I asked as we looked for the dock the TSF had said for us to use.

"Probably. Telos is Peragus' biggest buyer. They use a lot of fuel to keep Citadel Station in orbit," Atton explained.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about coming here. I wish Peragus had, I don't know, Nar Shaddaa in their charts instead of Telos."

"You have no idea how much I agree," Atton said, probably thinking about the Red Sector.

"You know, I can hear every word you guys are saying," Teri said, coming up behind us. "The Harbinger was on its way here before it was attacked. We're supposed to be here, whether you like it or not."

"I _know_," I said. "I was just saying I had a bad feeling. Didn't you hear that?" I looked at her pointedly. She rolled her eyes.

"Just make sure he-" she looked at Atton "-lands the ship properly. I'm not really interested in crashing and I'm sure the people who clean the station have better things to do."

"True. Pay attention, flyboy!" I yelled as we almost hit a shuttle flying past us.

"Sorry!" He yelled. I'm not sure whether he was yelling that at us or at the shuttle.

"Let's just land," I sighed, leaning back a bit.

Ten minutes and no major mishaps later, we landed in the TSF dock. I looked out the viewport and saw humans in stupid uniforms and ridiculous helmets. "And I thought my uniform was stupid," I said, quietly enough that Teri and Atton couldn't hear me. Then to them, I said, "Okay, if the authorities don't ask about Peragus, don't say anything."

"Way ahead of you," Atton said, holstering his blasters.

"Too right," Teri agreed, holstering her blaster and sheathing her Sith war sword.

We met Kreia and T3-M4 at the loading ramp and got off the ship in a group - safety in numbers, I guess. A TSF officer who wasn't wearing a helmet - lucky guy - came forward.

"I'm Lieutenant Grenn, Telos Security Force. You're under arrest in connection with the Peragus incident."

"We're under arrest? What do you want?" Teri asked.

"We're investigating the events leading up to and including the destruction of the Peragus mining station. As such, I have no choice but to take you into custody while the investigation is happening."

"All right, I understand. We'll come quietly."

"Says you," Atton muttered, reaching for his blasters. A glare from Teri stopped him mid-reach.

"Yes, I do. And we will come quietly and peacefully."

"Fine, Your Majesty. I'll be quiet... for now," he added under his breath.

"Good. My men will relieve you of your arms and armor. Follow us," Grenn said. One of the helmeted officers came up to me and held out his hand. I handed him my vibroblade, then took off my jacket and handed that to him as well.

"Tell me we're not going to jail again," Atton moaned.

"Okay," I chirped in a falsely cheerful tone. "We're not going to jail again." My face fell as I saw his glare. "Oh, that was rhetorical, wasn't it. Well, what else was I supposed to say?"

"How about nothing?"

"That's impossible," Teri interjected. "Don't you know that Laura can't keep her mouth shut for anything?"

"I can close it when I want to," I said. "I just like making smart-alecky comments when Atton talks." By now we were at the TSF station.

"Any chance you might stop for a while? It's getting annoying."

I grinned evilly. "Nope."

Atton groaned.

They locked us in force cages and left.

"Hmm, for some reason this seems familiar. Where have I seen this before? Oh, yeah, now I remember. I didn't like it then either."

"'This' being what?" Atton asked.

"The inside of a force cage."

"Too bad. Might as well get comfortable, though. We might be here a while."

"I guess so." I sat down, got as comfortable as I could, and waited.

After three hours of nothing happening, I got a little antsy. I wished I could get up and walk around, but no... Two jails in all of a week.

All of a sudden, Kreia stood up and said, "Someone is coming."

I hadn't heard anyone, but I trusted the game, and to a certain extent, Kreia's senses, so I stood up. It must be the fake Batu Rem coming, I thought.

Sure enough, when the door opened, he was standing there.

"What does Grenn want with us now?" Teri asked, also on her feet.

He laughed, a slimy laugh that immediately made me hate him. "I'm not with the TSF. What Dol Grenn wants with you is none of my concern."

"Then what do you want with us?" Teri's tone made it clear that she thought about as much of him as I did.

"I only want you, Jedi, for the price on your head."

"Ugh, a bounty hunter, eh?" Atton spat on the floor. "Your kind are the cheapest, most worthless mercenary scum in the galaxy. I'd hire a Mandalorian over your filth in a second."

"No Mandalorian could match my skills," he said angrily. "No Mandalorian could have infiltrated the TSF, stolen the identity of one of the guards, then-"

"Then what? Overloaded our force cages and made it look like an accident?" Atton snorted with contempt. "I bet you don't even have the guts to fight me. Heh. Pathetic."

"Don't think that overloading your cages had not occurred to me." I think he was about to explode and save us the trouble of killing him, but he kept his anger in check. "You're wanted alive, but I doubt anyone will care as long as I bring them your corpse."

"Hey, leave her alone. You want a fight? Then try me, if you've got the guts."

"You have goaded me once, and you shall not do so twice. But don't worry. I shall dispose of you all eventually."

"Feel free to try, but let's make it sooner rather than later," I said, acting bored. "For all it matters, you could just open the cages and kill us that way."

He paused, debating something in his head. He apparently came to a conclusion. "You would not be a match for me. An old woman, a fool, a child, and a broken Jedi will not stop me from getting what I want."

He opened the cages and started shooting, but man was he a terrible shot! Most of the time, he just hit the walls - or maybe that was us dodging. I went at him the only way I could, which was with my hands, not that I was getting a lot of great hits. I was swinging wildly, my fists hitting randomly. I hit his nose and it started gushing blood. Atton, meanwhile, was focusing on his back, trying to land a hit where it would end the battle. The assassin suddenly turned around as Atton was mid-punch. The punch connected with his temple, hard. He hit him again, this time under the chin. I heard a crack and the assassin - or more accurately, his body - crumpled to the floor.

"That was easier than expected," I said. "I figured he'd be tougher than that."

Atton scowled, rubbing his knuckles. "You didn't even do anything!"

"I broke his nose," I protested. "Besides, I kept him off you for most of the battle."

"Shut up, both of you!" Teri yelled. "The guards are coming!" I tried to look as innocent as I could with blood all over me and a dead body at my feet. The door opened and Grenn rushed in with other TSF officers at his heels.

"All right, _Jedi_," Grenn snarled. "I want you to back up slowly, hands in front of you, into the force cage!"

"Who's that?" One of them asked. "Is that Batu Rem?"

"No, that's an assassin," Teri said dryly. "I'm impressed with the security standards around here. You'd think you _wanted _him to kill us!"

"Rem's no assassin," the other officer protested angrily.

"Batu Rem is on leave. He shouldn't even be on the station. This man isn't him," Grenn replied. He looked us over suspiciously. "I assume you have something to do with this?"

"No, of course not," I muttered sarcastically. "The dead guy's blood is all over me and he's _right there_, and we have no idea what happened." He glared at me, then shook his head.

"Whatever. We've found an apartment for you. You'll be under house arrest until further notice and I'll personally clear any visitors to your quarters. There won't be a repeat of this incident."

"I hope not," I remarked. "'Cause I've certainly had enough of people trying to kill me for one lifetime."

"Why can't you just keep your mouth shut for once in your life?" Atton groaned.

"Because I'm me. I don't like being quiet."

"Can you try?"

"I can try, but I can't guarantee success."

I managed to keep quiet until we reached the apartment. Or more accurately, until our TSF escorts shoved us into the apartment.

"I can walk, thanks," I muttered angrily as I picked myself off the floor.

"Yeah," Teri said. "I mean, I know she's annoying, but you don't have to beat her up." I scowled at her.

"Thanks a lot, Teri." She grinned.

Grenn looked at us as though we were all insane. I didn't mind. I was kind of used to that. I guess he chose to ignore our antics, because all he did was roll his eyes and say: "You'll be staying here for the remainder of the investigation."

"How long will that be?"

"Shouldn't be longer than two or three standard days at most. Again, I'll personally clear any visitors to your quarters. If we need to contact you, we'll use the comm on the wall. Any questions?"

"Nope. Leave." They left.

"This isn't good," Atton muttered bleakly.

"What isn't good?"

"What do you think the TSF will find at Peragus? That could bring the Sith-" He paused and sighed defeatedly. "You know what? Forget it. As long as we're stuck here, it doesn't matter."

"We won't be here long," I said. "If the Sith do show up, I doubt we'll be on Citadel anymore."

"We'll see," Teri said, noncommittally. "Either way, we should get some rest."

"Okay, I get this bed!" Atton yelled, sounding - and looking - a bit like a five-year-old as he jumped and landed on one of the beds. Teri sat down at the foot of another bed, as did Kreia. It was then that I saw one major flaw with our apartment: there were only three beds.

"Oh well," I mumbled. "I guess I'll take the corner."

"You do that," Atton said, half asleep already. All of a sudden, a jacket hit me in the face. I pulled it off to see Teri snickering.

"I managed to get your jackets off the guards," she explained. "You might need it."

"Thanks, Teri," I said, folding my jacket into a usable pillow. As soon as my head hit it, I was asleep.

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><p><strong>AN**: Short one this time. Sorry, but I got stuck a couple of times for ideas on this one... mainly 'cause in the rough draft, I skewed the conversation with the fake Batu Rem. Don't expext another chapter for like a week and a half - on second thought, expect one in a week or less. I will push myself, plus I'll be hyped up on leftover excitement. I have a concert on Sunday, so I'll be all motivated to work afterward. I'm so excited! Excuse me if I talk about it next Author's Notes. It's gonna be awesome!

I'm done, don't worry.

Please review! Review or I'll get Kreia to Force Persuade you to compliment me profusely. I have _connections._


	9. Locked Doors and Cantina Rats

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself. Maybe some dialogue, too.

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><p>Chapter 8<p>

Locked Doors and Cantina Rats

I woke to an incessant beeping. I lifted my head and looked around. The wall comm was beeping and Teri wasn't listening, or couldn't hear it. Her head was on a pillow at a really strange angle. I thought she was dead until she snored.

"Teri," I said. "Teri. Teri! TERI!"

She was on her feet in a split second. "What is-" The comm beeped again. "Oh."

She walked over and answered it. A protocol droid appeared on the viewscreen. "Good day," it said in an irritating voice. "I am B-4D4. My mistress wishes to speak with you."

"Who is your mistress?"

"My mistress is Jana Lorso."

"Czerka," I spat. "Useless dirtbags." Teri looked over at me.

"Should I speak with her?"

"How much do you know about the Restoration Project?"

"Only that there are two groups involved."

I sighed. "Would you excuse us for a moment?" I asked B-4D4.

"Of course."

I pulled Teri off to the side a little. "Okay, this is the Restoration Project in very basic terms. Telos was attacked by the Sith during the Jedi Civil War. Now all the plants and animals and stuff are dead. The Republic comes along and decides, hey, we should rebuild. So they call in the Ithorians, who start bringing in plants and animals from Dxun, Onderon, and a few other planets. The Republic is funding all of this, giving the project massive amounts of credits. The credits attract Czerka, who tell the Republic they want in on the project. So Czerka starts 'helping,' or in realistic terms, they start making life hell for the Ithorians. Right now, the Ithorians have lost control of most of the Restoration Zones and Czerka has control. Czerka isn't actually helping the restoration, they're just salvaging some old military bases down there." I took a breath. "Any questions?"

She looked at me seriously. "Yeah. Has anyone ever told you you're a chatterbox?"

"Couple people."

"I guess your explanation helped a little." She turned back to B-4D4. "I don't want to speak with Lorso right now, thank you."

"If you wish to speak with her later, the Czerka offices may be found in Residential Module 82 West." Teri turned the comm off.

We just stood there looking at each other for a few minutes when she said, "How did you know that much about the Restoration Project?"

"Atton told me a little bit, and I had a bit of prior knowledge," I said relatively evenly, hoping she wouldn't ask any more questions.

She shook her head. "You had a bit of prior knowledge? Atton said you didn't know anything about the galaxy."

"And Atton's information became accurate when? I know a little. Not enough for his standards, but oh well."

"Where did you learn it all?"

Oh, shit. I couldn't answer entirely honestly, because she'd probably freak out, or Atton would hear and go berserk. Or both.

I avoided the question. "Here and there."

"Right," she said, giving me a look that clearly told me the matter wasn't closed.

"I will tell you, just not now. Let's get some rest. We'll probably need it."

She went back to bed and I lay down in the corner. I couldn't fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried, so eventually I admitted defeat and sat in the corner, singing as many Nickelback songs as I could remember. Even a month after last hearing them, I could remember a lot.

As I was in the middle of one of my favourites, I had the feeling someone was watching me. I looked over at the beds and saw Atton sitting up, watching me.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm singing."

"I figured that much out. What're you singing? It sounds... sad. Sad and kind of weird."

"It would sound weird to you. The song's called Lullaby. It's by my favourite band from my home."

"Okay..."

"I know, I'm insane. I get it."

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just... different. Where is your home, anyway? What planet?"

"I don't know where it is. I only know that it's not part of the Republic. For all I know, it could be on the very edge of the Rim, or it could be in the Unknown Regions, or it could be somewhere else entirely."

"Nothing lives in the Unknown Regions, it couldn't be there."

I shrugged. "No one really knows that. Except maybe Revan." I sighed sadly. "I miss Earth."

"That's your planet? Never heard of it."

"I didn't think you would have. It's really beautiful... It's sort of like Coruscant and Naboo, mixed. Big cities, but also a lot of nature. Green more or less all over, at least where I came from." I lowered my voice, about to cry. "I never thought I'd leave."

"Must be hard."

"Yeah. Where do you come from?" I might as well take any opportunity to get to know my companions better. I might be traveling with them for a while.

"I don't really know. Even as a kid, I never really had a chance to stay in one place for too long." He was surprisingly nonchalant. It didn't seem to bother him on the surface, but I could kind of tell that he wouldn't have told even this much to most people.

"Does it bother you, not having a real home?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them. "I'm sorry... I just meant..."

"Yeah, I get it. It doesn't really bother me that much, I guess."

We sat in silence for a little while, then the comm beeped. I came over and shook Teri awake.

"The comm," I told her. She got up and answered it, grumbling about never being able to get enough sleep. It was one of the guards.

"An Ithorian representative is here to see you. Lieutenant Grenn's cleared him, if you'd like to speak to him."

Teri looked at us. I nodded. "If you want to."

"Yes, please send him in," she told the guard. As she said that, I scrambled away from the door. It opened a few seconds later. Teri pulled out the sonic sensor from Peragus as a greenish-skinned, hammerheaded alien walked through the door.

He said something in his gibberish language. Since I couldn't hear the sonic sensor's translation either, I tuned the conversation out until Teri said, "We'll visit Chodo Habat when we're released, then." He replied, she nodded, then he left.

"What were you talking about?" I asked after the door closed.

"Just like you said, the Ithorians are having Czerka problems. Moza was sent here to ask for our help in dealing with them."

"So let me guess," I said. "We're going to go over there, talk to him, then do various errands around Citadel Station to stop Czerka's harassment until we can leave. Am I right?"

"Probably, more or less."

"Oh boy, I can hardly wait," I mumbled, and went to go sit in my corner. "How long till we get released?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"I guess I'll just wait then."

Teri went back to bed and Kreia went to stand by the window. A few minutes later, when Teri was asleep, Atton walked over to talk to Kreia.

"Explain something to me," he said.

She glared at him. "I do not have the years required, nor the desire to indulge you."

Atton ignored the old-lady death glare. "Why is Teri so... Why is she the way she is?"

"She has been away from war for some time. It is conflict that strengthens us, and isolation that weakens us."

"But Jedi are supposed to be tough, capable..."

"Yes... But what is a Jedi without the Force? Take the greatest Jedi Knight, strip away the Force, and what remains? Watch as one tries to hold a blaster, as they try to hold a lightsaber, and you will see nothing more than what is there. A woman, or a man. A child."

"To fall so far... I guess I didn't think it was possible."

"Do not be so surprised. Even you, in many ways, are more capable than a Jedi. You could survive in situations that they could not, simply because you do not hear the Force as they do. But we shall not speak of this any longer. We are doing her a disservice by not speaking of it in her presence.

"Okay. Just one more question."

"This matter is closed."

"It's not about Teri!"

She regarded him closely, as though trying to figure out what he wanted. "Very well. Speak."

He looked around, his gaze landing on me. I acted as though I was asleep sitting up, and he turned back to Kreia. "Where does Laura come from? She wouldn't tell me."

"She has told you what she knows."

"She said her home planet was... Earth? I've never heard of that planet."

"It is not in this galaxy. There are many other galaxies, all full of life. Her planet is on the edge of a very distant galaxy." She paused for a moment. "She was brought here for a reason, although that reason is unknown to both her and me. She will likely follow the Exile for at least a short time, if not until her quest is complete. The child knows better than any of us where the Exile's path will lead."

My gut told me that it was bad that Kreia had said that. I was trying to understand why, when I realized: She had basically just told Atton that I knew the future. That damn witch! She was done for when I "woke up".

"Wait... What? She can tell the future?"

"In a sense... She will not tell you. Do not ask her about it."

"Fine."

That was anticlimactic, but fine with me, I guess. It saved me a lot of awkward answers, at least, and I decided not to kill Kreia. Not right away, at least.

Atton went back to bed and Kreia went back to doing... whatever Kreia did. I pondered what Atton thought about on a regular basis, and decided that he rarely thought at all, really. I started singing to myself again, starting with If Today Was Your Last Day, and going from there. A while later, I fell asleep again.

I woke to the sound of the door opening. I scrambled up and moved to the middle of the room, where the other three were already standing. Grenn walked through the door.

"We've completed our investigation of the wreckage of the Peragus facility and come to the conclusion that you weren't responsible for its destruction."

"We could have told you that," I mumbled, "but of course, no one listens." Teri shot me a glare.

"So... Now what?" She asked.

"Well, you're no longer under house arrest, but the Republic wants to do its own investigation and they've asked that you stay on the station until it's over."

"That's it?" He nodded. "All right, we're out of here! Let's go!" I grabbed my jacket and followed Teri out, leaving Grenn inside the apartment. She closed the door behind us.

"Think we should lock it?" Teri asked.

"Since there are no guards around... Yes!" I cried. Teri hit the door controls and there was a loud click. A few seconds later, we heard Grenn's voice.

"How dare you lock this door on me? Let me out this instant!"

We smirked at each other. "I don't think so," we said in unison, then ran away.

We went to the opposite side of the apartment block to talk with the Ithorians, or Teri and Kreia did, anyway. She told me and Atton to "look around", which in Atton-speak means "find a cantina, get drunk, and play a lot of pazaak". In his defense, though, he was really good at pazaak, even when drunk. He pretty much cleaned out the competition. I was more or less just there to get him more drinks, not that I was complaining. It was kind of fun to see his opponent's faces when they got their asses kicked by a guy who was drop-dead drunk. It was fun, that is, until one of the guys he was cleaning out got almost as drunk as him and tried to make a move on me.

As soon as he did that, Atton tried to jump to my defense, but he was so unsteady he stumbled and fell back into his seat. The other guy wasn't quite as uncoordinated and got up to try me. He reached for me, slowly, and I grabbed his wrist, ducked under his arm - ugh - and wrenched his arm as far up his back as I could get it.

"You sure you want to try that?" I whispered in his ear. He struggled and I kicked his knee, sending him to the ground. I was still holding his wrist as he fell, which let me pull it up a bit higher. His arm cracked. The crowd watching went "ooh..." in sympathy with his pain.

"I'm not interested," I said releasing his arm. I grabbed the credits on the table and Atton's pazaak deck and put them away. "Let's go," I told him. He got up and, stumbling slightly, he followed me back to the apartment.

I pointed to the refresher. "You stink like alcohol. Go take a shower." He went in and closed the door.

I looked at the walls, wondering how Grenn had managed to get out of the apartment. I guess someone had come by and let him out. Atton came out of the shower a little while later and crashed face-first on his bed. I sat in my corner, wondering how things were going for Teri.

She came back about an hour later. "What did you two do?" She asked me, staring at Atton.

"We went to a cantina-"

"That explains the smell of alcohol."

"Do you mind?"

"Sorry, go ahead."

"Anyway, Atton got really drunk, cleaned a bunch of people out of their credits, then some drunk guy made a move on me and I broke his arm. Then we left."

She looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"You broke a guy's arm?"

"I didn't want to, but I had him in a hold and he almost got out."

"It was brutal," Atton's muffled voice came from the bed. "She kicked him down to his knees and wrenched his arm up over his head."

"How would you know?" I asked indignantly. "You were drunk."

"Doesn't mean I was blind."

"No, it means that you didn't know what you saw."

"I've been drunk enough to know that I don't randomly see teenagers breaking people's arms out of nowhere."

Teri cleared her throat. "It doesn't really matter all that much, guys."

"So how'd things go with you?" I asked Teri.

"Well, the Ithorians are convinced that the only way to get Czerka out of their lives is to get them off Citadel Station, which means we have to find something incriminating so that the Telosian Council will kick them off Citadel."

"How do we do that?"

"We need to find a record of them doing something really illegal."

"Records like that would most likely be kept on a mainframe that's closed to everyone but Czerka employees," Atton said. "The only person that would be guaranteed to have access to that mainframe is-"

"The head of Czerka on Citadel, I know," Teri finished. "Chodo told me about someone who might be able to help us get in though. A disillusioned Czerka employee by the name of Corrun Falt. Heard of him?"

"Nope," I said.

"Yeah, you have," Atton mumbled.

I turned to face him. "What?"

"He's the guy in the cantina whose arm you broke."

"Oh, not good."

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><p><strong>AN**: Here's your update, and right when I said it would be, too. Not a whole lot of action, but it's better than 14 pages about running errands for the Ithorians. And also, some Nickelback references. I don't own those guys either, as much as I'd like to... I sound like a stalker. Anyway, there will likely be more references to them and their songs, which I highly reccommend listening to, if you like that kind of stuff. They put on a good live show, too. I just saw them on Sunday! It was amazing. Pyro, screaming, light show, and a flying stage. I screamed so loud, I was hoarse for 2 days. It was sweet!

About the story: I should put a warning for slight character-personality-messing-up. I made Atton sound all sympathetic. I really am a weirdo. And I messed up Kreia a bit too. What is wrong with me!

Anyway, don't forget to review! I will get an army of ninjas to hunt you down if you don't... Okay, maybe not. But please don't ghostread! Everything's accepted, and all reviews will recieve a reply!


	10. So Getting Out of Here

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter 9<p>

So Getting Out of Here

I paced around the apartment. "I'm so bored!" I complained. "Just 'cause I broke some guy's arm suddenly means I'm not allowed out of the apartment anymore, according to Teri. I bet she's done worse."

Atton was unsympathetic. "Hurting people doesn't really make them feel comfortable."

"Because I _tried_ to hurt him," I said sarcastically. "It's his fault anyway. He got drunk and tried something. I was just defending myself."

"Tell him that," he snorted.

"You're helping _so_ much, hangover boy," I grumbled.

"If it does help, Teri should be back soon, and she'll probably need your help with something," he offered. "If she needs any kind of help, she sure as hell isn't gonna ask me."

"True. The whole constant moaning about your headache thing is enough to make anyone fall to the dark side." I had to duck to avoid a pillow flying at my head.

"If it bothers you so much," he said, collapsing to the bed and moaning.

"That's so fake," I said. "If you're gonna act, at least do it well."

"Can't you give it a rest? You're so merciless. I bet sleeps-with-vibroblades would be begging for you to stop. Where'd you learn so many insults?"

"My brothers were as merciless as me. My first few words were probably insults." I grinned. "It's kinda fun, too."

He groaned again, for real this time. "At least let me get some sleep."

I stayed silent for about a minute and he started snoring.

"Heavy sleeper," I muttered. "Loud, too."

I lay down in the corner on my jacket trying to fall asleep, but, thanks to Atton, epically failed. I gave up and let my mind wander, thinking about things like cookies, and whether my little brother had beaten his latest video game.

Teri came back about an hour later. "Okay, I know what we're doing next," she yelled. Atton started and fell off the bed.

"Can't a guy get some decent sleep around here?" He yelled. "I could barely get Laura to shut up long enough to fall asleep!"

"You were snoring a minute after you told me to be quiet. You're not that hard done by." I turned to Teri. "So what are we doing? I'm bored out of my mind."

"I've got to go get Czerka's droid to the Ithorians so they can reprogram it to work for them, then send it back to get the information we need."

"Then what?" I asked, more for Atton's benefit than mine.

"Then we borrow Chodo's shuttle and get the hell off this station."

"Wait a minute," Atton said. "Why would we have to borrow a shuttle when we have the Ebon Hawk?"

"It got stolen."

Atton facepalmed. "And you didn't tell us this before, why?"

"I only just went to the TSF station. I forgot to earlier."

I sighed. "You'd probably forget your head if it weren't attached to your shoulders, wouldn't you?"

"Some days. And before I forget, here." She tossed me my vibroblade and shields.

"Excellent." I attached my vibroblade and sheath to my belt and put my shields on my forearms.

Atton stumbled to his feet. "If it means I can have my blasters back, I think my head's feeling better." He looked vaguely like a hopeful six-year-old asking for a cookie. But much more "manly".

"Fine," Teri fake sighed - apparently she agreed with my assessment. "Here." She handed him his blasters. "Just don't use them unless you have to." This comment was directed at both of us.

I saluted her with two fingers. "Yes, ma'am." She rolled her eyes.

"So while you go get this droid, what do the rest of us do?"

"Atton and Kreia are coming with me. You can pretty much do what you want as long as you don't kill anyone."

"I know there's someone who sells weapons around here. Maybe I'll find something better than a vibroblade."

"You have credits?"

"I have as almost everything that Atton won, plus whatever Corrun Falt left on the table. Probably around seven hundred."

She looked impressed. "How many games did you play, anyway?"

"I lost count after 10 glasses."

She rolled her eyes.

"He played around 30 games and cleaned out about ten people who were stupid enough to bet everything they had."

Teri nodded. "You're alright, then. Meet us back here in one hour."

"Got it."

I went to Samhan Dobo's shop and looked at his melee weapons. He didn't have a great stock, but I eventually found something I liked: an Echani vibrosword.

I still had a little while left until I had to meet the others, so I went to the cantina. The bartender droid evidently hadn't seen what I did earlier or didn't care, because nobody kicked me out of the cantina. I sat at the bar and ordered a small juma, just to try. It was a little sweet and sort of tasted like pears. Only a little, though.

"But really, who'd make wine out of a pear?" I said under my breath.

"Pair of what?" Came a voice from beside me.

"Oh, nothing," I said as I looked at the person who owned the voice. It was Luxa, the slimy cantina rat Czerka worker.

"Sure. So what's a little girl like you doing in a cantina alone?"

"First, I'm not a little girl, and second, I'm having a drink."

"Right. Just be sure not to go overboard." She winked in a way that made me wonder if she knew about the Corrun Falt incident. She apparently guessed what I was wondering, because she lowered her voice.

"Yeah, I saw what you did to Corrun. He had it coming to him. Never could hold his juma." She looked at me intently. "Czerka could use someone like you, you know. Strong, smart…"

"I'm good, thanks," I said coolly. "I'm no mercenary."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll be here if you change your mind." She walked back to her Gammorean bodyguards.

I sat at the bar a little longer, finishing my first juma and ordering a second one. About halfway through that one, I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around on my bar stool, Kicking my leg out mid-spin.

My foot connected with Atton's knee.

"Ow!" He bent over and held his knee. "What was that for?"

"Sorry! I didn't know it was you and I don't like it when people sneak up on me."

"Still, ow…" He sat down on the stool next to me.

"Why are you here? Where are the others?"

"The droid's taking longer than they thought it would to reprogram. Teri told me to go and they'd comm me if they needed me –"

"And why would they need a scoundrel pilot anyway?" He glared at me. "Go on."

"So I came here."

"Force of habit?"

"Sort of. Gimme a juma," he said to the bartender. I laid the credits for it on the bar.

We hung around for a while, played pazaak Republic Senate rules, and had one or two more drinks. Or Atton did, anyway. I just finished the one. Atton's comlink beeped after around an hour and Teri came on.

"We're done her. Meet us outside the Ithorian compound."

"Will do."

When we got to the compound, Teri was really excited. "We're getting out of here."

"What?"

"Chodo Habat's letting us borrow an orbital shuttle to take down to Telos' surface to find someone who can help us locate the Ebon Hawk."

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Let's go!" I had a feeling I was forgetting something. I couldn't tell what it was, since we had all our stuff with us. I shrugged it off.

It wasn't until we got to the docking bay and Teri's comlink beeped that I remembered what I had forgotten: the Ithorians get attacked by Czerka mercenaries, and the Exile has to save them before she can get on the shuttle.

She answered her comlink and listened to Moza for a moment. "We'll be right there," she replied and shut it off.

"The Ithorians have been ambushed by Czerka mercenaries and we have to help them out!"

"Alright."

We got to the compound, opened the doors and were immediately dodging blaster bolts. Teri, Atton and Kreia all pulled blasters and shot for heads, while I jumped into the fray and hit what I could with my vibrosword. I took a few minor hits, but soon enough, the droids were piles of scrap metal and the mercs were… very dead. Teri healed our wounds with the Force and we moved on to the next room.

After the second room, we went into the plant room to find mercenaries aiming their weapons at Moza's head.

"Let him go," Teri said, waving her hand.

"Mind tricks don't work on us, Jedi!" One of them yelled, and they opened fire on us. I went for the ones still surrounding Moza with a battle cry, startling them and making them easy to hit. He said something to me afterwards in what I assumed was a grateful tone, because it didn't sound angry or scared.

I turned to help the others with the rest of the mercenaries, but they were already done.

Teri talked to Moza for a second and he handed her what I assumed was a key. She turned back to us and said, "I have the key. Let's go save Chodo."

We opened the door to Chodo's chamber to find the same situation as with Moza, only there were a lot more mercenaries in here. Battle ensued. I took some hits from vibroblades and Exchange negotiators, but my shields saved me from the blaster bolts, for the most part. I saw Atton get knocked down, the Kreia. Atton got back up and used a medpac on himself, then ran to go help Teri, who was surrounded and disarmed. I drew my spare vibroblade and threw it in that direction. It lodged itself in one of the mercs' backs. Teri pulled it out as he fell forward and cut down one of the other mercs while Atton was tangling with another. He was using a vibrosword.

I barely had time to wonder where he had got it from before I was forced to dodge a swing at my left arm. I turned and punched my attacker in the face, feeling something crunch under my fist. I took him down with a stab to the gut.

It felt like another half hour of fighting – in reality it was probably only around 5 minutes – but eventually all the mercenaries were dead on the ground. Teri healed our wounds and helped Kreia to her feet.

She had a short conversation with Chodo Habat, then turned to us and said, "The Ithorians will clean up. Let's go."

We went back to the docking bay and got on the shuttle. I headed up to the cockpit with Atton and took the copilot's seat.

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked as he got ready to take off.

He glanced over at me. "You can help by not distracting me until we clear the station." I saluted him with two fingers and watched out the front viewport as we took off, happy to finally be getting somewhere.

As we cleared the final reaches of Citadel Station, I looked at the planet's surface. It looked a little like orbital pictures of Earth. I felt a pang of homesickness at the thought and wrapped my arms around myself. Atton looked over.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Telos… It's destroyed, but it looks a bit like Earth seen from orbit."

He looked down at the planet and I saw "Really?" run across his face.

"Earth's more green, and the oceans are bigger, but other than that…" He nodded. We didn't say anything else until a massive shield came into view.

"Those separate the Restoration Zones, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. They're what make it possible for plants and stuff to survive. The shields control the climate and weather."

"Wonder how they were built?"

"Force knows. Don't know who designed them, either. I doubt even the Echani could think of something like that."

"Yeah, I bet," I said under my breath.

"We're coming up on the one the Ithorians told us about," he said a minute later. "Go warn Teri, would ya?"

"Sure," I replied, heading towards the back of the ship. I was about to knock on Teri's door when the ship lurched and I fell to the floor.

"There's an AD tower over here!" Atton yelled from the cockpit. "We've been hit! Everyone, hold on!"

I wrapped my arms around a nearby chair and hoped that Atton was as good a pilot in real life as he was in the game. The ship hit something once, twice, before tilting towards the front. My grip on the chair disappeared, and I flew forward. I felt the shuttle bury itself in the ground, and then everything went black.

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><p><strong>AN**: Oh, no, we're in trouble! Hopefully Bao-Dur will show up and help us... right?

Anyway, quick update this time. I was totally in the zone for writing. My muse wasn't going nowhere! Hopefully it'll stay that way and we'll be back on the Hawk where we belong before Victoria Day (note to non-Canadians: May 21). Citadel took longer than I had thought - I only had planned to use 2 chapters, but my rough copies were so not interested in following my plans.

Review! No ghostreading allowed! Don't make me release the ninjas, please! Those guys are scary! Review before they break loose! And anonymous reviews are welcome too, but ones from logged-in users will be replied to as well!


	11. Planetside

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

**A/N**: This chapter is dedicated to my mom, even though it's a week after Mother's Day. I know you're reading this, Mom. You do so much for me and you support me in my writing and everything else, too. Thank you. I love you.

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><p>Chapter 10<p>

Planetside

The next thing I remember after the crash were voices. I wanted them to go away. They just got louder, and I considered telling them to get the hell away from me, but I decided to listen to them instead.

"Lucky I was here to pull you and your friends out of the crash. But I guess it's only fair. I owe you more than one, General." This was said by a vaguely familiar male voice.

"Are they all right?" This voice was Teri. As I woke up a little more, I realized that the guy must be Bao-Dur.

"The pilot's more or less unharmed, the kid's okay and the old lady... Well, she's tougher than she looks."

"How many times do I have to tell people, I'm not just a kid." I stood up and checked myself for injuries. I was going to have a large bruise on my backside and on one of my arms, but other than that I had nothing really serious. No broken bones, at least.

Atton took a look at our surroundings as he stood up. "Ugh... Feels like my last time on Telos."

Bao-Dur's mouth quirked up. "Crashed a shuttle that time, too?"

"No, pazaak."

"Who are you kidding? That was this time."

"Last time, too."

"That was not the most pleasant landing I've endured," Kreia remarked to Teri. "Perhaps next time we should seek out a more reputable pilot."

"You're welcome, Kreia," Atton said scathingly. "You know, if I weren't such a crack pilot, we could have crashed into the shield wall or one of those rock faces."

"Yes, our current situation is a vast improvement."

"I don't see why you're complaining. Old as you are, and with that face, I'm sure you've endured a lot worse," I remarked. I ignored the old-lady death glare she gave me.

Teri rolled her eyes and said to Bao-Dur, "Who are you? You seem familiar..."

"I'll have to give you that one, General. A crash like that is bound to mean some long-term memory loss. But I figured you'd remember me, at least. Bao-Dur?"

Her face blanked out for a second. Then she nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember now. Only Zabrak tech we had. Most of the rest wanted out on the front lines. What are you doing here?"

"Trying to help out the Ithorians. I got tired of how Czerka pushed them around, so I tried to take matters into my own hands and sabotage them down here. Hasn't been working too well, so far. What brings you to Telos, General?"

"The Restoration Project, and our ship got stolen, so we're looking for it."

"Besides your shuttle, nothing's landed down here since the Czerka mercenaries a while ago."

"The TSF said it didn't leave the system. It has to be down here somewhere."

"I could track it through the shield network, if I could gain access to it."

"There's the 'if'. I knew there would be something," I muttered.

"There's an old military base up ahead. There should be a console there that I can use to access it."

"But there's a bunch of Czerka mercenaries in the way, aren't there?" Teri asked.

"They shouldn't be too much of a problem. You survived Peragus, and my annoying comments. No big deal."

She shrugged. "I hope you're right."

We went in the direction Bao-Dur indicated, towards the coast. There were a few small groups of mercenaries and wild animals, but we didn't have too many problems. When we got to the coast, we took a short break. Atton and Bao-Dur were having a conversation about how Telos used to be - they evidently had both seen it before the bombing - and Kreia dragged Teri off to the side to have some discussion or other about some dull topic, leaving me to look out over the ocean.

I had seen the Canadian East Coast before, and knew what an ocean looked like, but this was different. The water was almost the same colour as the sky - an almost icy blue - and the beach was white.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Teri asked, coming up behind me.

I barely glanced at her. "Maybe... It reminds me of the beach near my home." I gestured to the ocean. "There was a lake near my house; this reminds me of it a bit."

"You miss it."

"Yeah, I definitely do." I chuckled humorlessly. "The galaxy apparently hates me. Telos reminds me so much of home it hurts."

"I'd like to see your planet someday. It sounds nice." Catching the look I gave her, she continued, "I'm not as heavy of a sleeper as you think I am. I heard you talking to Atton about it a few days ago."

"Right. You... didn't happen to hear anything else, did you?"

"If by that, you're talking about your little performance, then yeah, I heard. You're a pretty good singer, you know."

"Thanks." I looked around awkwardly. "I guess we should get moving again, eh?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

We got around the mercenaries and continued on our way. After a minefield, a Twi'lek with two battle droids, more mercenaries, and vicious small carnivores, we made it to the entrance of the military base.

"Oh, great," I muttered. "More mercs. Any kind of plan, or do we just wing it?"

Bao-Dur grinned a little viciously. "Get rid of them. See that landing pad over there? There's a console on it that I can use to get into the shield network."

"Okay, plan number one," Teri said. "Kill all the mercenaries, then get up to the landing pad and find our ship."

"Why not just kill the ones in the way, then keep the rest off Bao-Dur's back? That might be easier than going after all of them."

"Good point," she said. "Okay, get the ones in the way. Let's go." We walked around the corner and came upon the leading group of mercenaries.

"Look, boys," one of them, evidently the leader, said. "It's the Jedi. Corrun Falt said you were dangerous. Guess he knew what he was talking about." He looked at me. "Aren't you the kid who broke his arm?"

"Damn right I am." I looked at Teri. "You told him where we were going?"

She shrugged. "I didn't see a need not to."

I facepalmed.

"I don't think we should kill the little girl. I think Falt wants her for himself."

"Well, maybe you can send the bastard a message before you die. With your last words: 'Sorry, Corrun, you can't have her,'" I taunted.

"Damn Corrun," he snarled. "You'll die for that." He charged toward me, a vibroblade in his hand. I thanked the Force I had remembered to turn on a shield as his first blow landed on my shoulder. Most of the damage was avoided, but I still earned a slash mark.

He continued to attack me furiously, his rage fueling his blows. I wasn't strong enough to block his attacks, so I dodged what I could and left the rest to my melee shield. He soon started to tire a little and leave small openings - not big enough to take advantage of, but openings nonetheless. They got bigger as he tired more.

Unfortunately, I was tiring too. Running around dodging his vibrosword was difficult and exhausting. I was desperately trying to think of a way to finish him when I spotted a fallen mercenary with his blaster still in hand. I made a mad dash for it, grabbed the blaster, turned around and fired a quick shot at my opponent.

It hit him in the shoulder and stunned him for a second. I fired again and hit him in the chest, then got another shot into his head.

Meanwhile, Teri and Kreia were fighting mercenaries back-to-back, covering each other's weaknesses and using the Force to down their opponents. They were both too preoccupied to heal my wounds, and they weren't that serious anyway, so I just used a medpac and headed to help Bao-Dur. He was up against a group of mercenaries solo. I wondered for a second where Atton was until I saw him standing on a ridge and shooting anyone we couldn't get to ourselves.

Bao-Dur and I took down the last of the mercenary group and he ran to the landing pad. "Wait!" I called. "There's some turrets up there!" He activated a shield and ran up the ramp. I shook my head and followed suit.

I got to the top of the ramp and destroyed both turrets, which were both focused on shooting Bao-Dur and didn't notice me. He was focusing on the two mercenaries. I threw my extra vibroblade at one of their backs, while Bao-Dur rammed the other one through with his force pike.

He looked like he was ready to go after the remaining mercenaries in the camp, but I stopped him and pointed at the computer. "The shield network!"

"Right." He nodded and got to work. I stood at the top of the ramp and took down anyone who came up, though not many did. Teri joined us within a minute or two, followed shortly by Atton and Kreia.

Teri and Bao-Dur looked at the computer and talked for a minute, then Teri straightened. "We"re going to the Telos polar region."

"Is that where the Hawk is?" Atton asked. "How are we supposed to get there?"

"There should be a shuttle inside the military base."

"As long as it's not completely destroyed, I should be able to get it to work," Bao-Dur added.

"One last question," I said. "Is it cold up there?"

Teri looked at me. "Yeah."

"Okay, let's go."

"... All right then..."

As we entered the base, she came up beside me. "What was that about?"

"I was just wondering. I can handle cold pretty well. It gets really cold sometimes where I live."

"How cold?"

"Well below the freezing temperature of water."

"How does anything survive?"

"It only gets that cold some places on Earth. Others are desert, and some are wet."

"That's so weird!"

"What is?"

"Having more than one climate on one planet!" We were still walking in the base, and the others were listening in as we talked.

"Not many planets are like that?"

"No, only a few that I know of."

"Oh. Well, we should probably talk about this later. Maybe on the shuttle."

She nodded and took point. We walked into a room with grating on the floor, and turrets. Active turrets. I took the one in the corner by the door, while Teri shot at the one opposite it and Kreia used the Force on another one. Atton and Bao-Dur tried to cross the grating to attack a turret on the far side of the room, but when the stepped on the grating, a disgustingly green gas rose up. Atton doubled over coughing.

"It's poison!" He choked out. "Stay off the grating!"

Teri tossed the two of them antidote packs. They got themselves off the grates and used them while the three of us finished the rest of the turrets. Bao-Dur started using the console in the middle of the room. Teri came over.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

"Trying to disable the security, but I can't control it from here. I do know what the defense systems are, though." He paused, typing something in. "Poison in most rooms, turrets, and..."

"War droids?" Atton asked. "They sure do take their security seriously around here, huh."

"There are also force fields on some doors," Bao-Dur finished. We looked at the door in this room. Sure enough, there was an energy field blocking the doorway. "I can take care of that, General."

She indicated for him to proceed. He walked up to the door and punched it with his mechanical arm, causing it to short-circuit and deactivate.

Not much else besides droids and turret attacks happened until we reached the hangar. The shuttle was sitting in the middle of it. Teri walked over and examined it.

"Looks all right. Think you can get it running, Bao?"

"Whatever shape it's in, I'm sure I can get it running. But that's all a moot point."

"Why is that?"

"The hangar doors are closed. I don't know about you, but I don't fancy trying to fly through solid durasteel. We need to find some way to open the doors."

"The shuttle probably won't work without ignition codes, either," Atton added, "so we'll need to find those, too."

"Let's get going, then," Teri finished.

Atton decided to stay back and find the ignition codes in the hangar bay computer, so the rest of us wandered through the base, trying to find anything that might open the hangar doors.

One of the computers we found along the way was the control console for the defense systems. It took a little while to hack into, but we at least didn't have to waste any more time destroying turrets or avoiding poison.

Maybe a half hour after we left Atton at the hangar, we found the generator that would power everything in the base, including the hangar doors. Teri activated it, and since I was standing by the doors, I could hear turrets coming back online in the room behind us.

"Great, just great," I muttered. "Teri, we got a problem."

"What is it?"

"The turrets are back on, and the poison probably is too. I knew we should have destroyed those things."

She shrugged. "Oh, well, we didn't, so let's do it now." She was about to charge into the room when her comlink signaled. She waved the rest of us to go kill the turrets, and Kreia and Bao-Dur did, but I just gave her a look and she waved it off. She answered her comlink and sighed. "What is it, Atton?"

He was out of breath. "I was giving the shuttle a once-over when this giant droid behemoth came out of some doors in the hangar. I never even noticed them before. I managed to duck inside the control room before it started shooting." He muttered something in some strange language, probably a curse. "I can't believe we didn't see the doors. They're so damn big!"

"Best way to hide some things is right in the open," I remarked.

"When you get back here, just be careful. I'm gonna try and do some damage," he said, then Teri deactivated her comlink.

"Let's go rescue our pilot, shall we?"

I grinned. "We shall."

We made our way back to the hangar as quickly as we could, despite Teri getting lost once or twice - to her credit, the walls did all look the same - avoiding the turrets as much as we could. When we got there, we paused in the corridor. I could hear blasterfire and war cries. I poked my head around the corner to see what was going on.

Atton was in the opposite corridor, shooting at a giant droid - I kid you not, it looked like a giant metal storage container on two legs, with guns. A lot of guns. Atton was hiding behind a crate, shielded, avoiding the full brunt of the droid's fire. Teri, who had apparently also decided to take a look, threw an ion grenade at the behemoth, which exploded between its feet. The droid turned around. I looked at Atton, who was staring at us with an expression of pure relief on his face.

Meanwhile, the droid had started shooting at us. Teri pulled an ion rifle out of her pack, as did Bao-Dur, and started shooting. Kreia just used her regular blaster.

"Nothing you're doing is hurting it!" Atton yelled, then loosed a plasma grenade at the droid. Where the hell had he gotten one of those? "We need to take off!"

"Did you get the launch codes?" Teri yelled back.

"Yeah!"

"Let's go then!" I yelled, and sprinted to the shuttle. The hangar doors were already open, fortunately.

I flew up the shuttle's ramp, Atton hot on my heels. He pushed past me into the cockpit. I sat in one of the seats on the wall as Teri, Bao-Dur and Kreia sprinted up the ramp as well.

"We're all here!" I yelled to Atton. "Get us the hell out of here!"

The shuttle lifted off. I could hear a few blaster bolts hit the back end, but there wasn't any serious damage. When we were flying straight, I headed up to the cockpit.

"That was close. Guess you are a pretty good pilot after all."

He snorted. "Pretty good? You couldn't have done better if you were trained by a Jedi!" There was a note of pride in his voice.

"Yeah, I bet, Mr. Conceited Flyboy." I rolled my eyes.

"It's true!" He said earnestly. "I'm the best pilot in the Outer Rim. Ask anyone!"

"If I ask just anyone, they might not know you," I pointed out. Then I yawned. "There's no one here anyway, and I'm tired. Wake me up when we get near the pole." I leaned back in the copilot's seat and closed my eyes.

I woke up later when Atton shook my shoulder. My eyes immediately went to the viewport.

"It's snowing. I wish I could go outside."

"are you kidding? You'd have to be crazy to go out in that."

"So? I'm from a place that sees snow most of the year! This is no big deal."

"Well, unless you can fly, you can't go out there anyway."

"I know. I'm not an idiot. I just wish."

He sat back down in the pilot's seat, getting ready to land on a plateau in the distance.

Five minutes or so later, we were getting closer. Atton started to slow the shuttle down a bit. I saw a flash on top of the plateau. A second later, the ship was rocked by a sudden impact.

"Dammit, not again!" Atton yelled. "Hang on, we're going down!"

I strapped myself into the seat as the shuttle aimed its nose at the plateau. I held on for dear life as Atton desperately tried to keep control of the shuttle. My arms flew of their own accord in a desperate bid to keep me alive as we buried ourselves into the plateau with an almighty crash. My head was slammed back into the seat and I lost consciousness.

It was cold when I woke up. My face was getting the worst of it, which persuaded me to get up faster. Teri was getting up as well. Kreia and Atton were on the ground nearby, while Bao-Dur was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing all the snow around made me think of an evil plan. I picked up a handful of snow from the ground and crept slowly toward Atton. Teri gave me a curious look, but I just waved her off. I lifted the back of Atton's shirt and jacket off his neck and shoved the snow down his back, then ran away as he leapt to his feet and started making frantic motions, trying to get the snow out of his shirt.

"LAURA!" He bellowed, reaching over his shoulder to try and pull the snow out. Teri and I were doubled over laughing and Kreia, who had gotten up by now, was giving me a disapproving glare. More disapproving than normal, anyway.

"Ha... Oh man, that was good," I gasped in between laughing. "This is... Ha!... why I wanted out in the snow." I was still laughing until I was hit in the face with flying snow.

Atton still had his arm outstretched. His face was bright red with anger and embarrassment.

"So you want to play that way, eh? Here's a lesson for you: never start a snowball fight with a Canadian." I started preparing a snowball to cool his face down with.

"Later, you two!" Teri warned, pointing. I followed the direction of her finger and saw three HK-50 droids.

"Oh, three of them, eh? Maybe they'll make us break a sweat." I picked up my vibrosword from its place on the ground and positioned myself behind Teri a little ways, to her left.

"Statement: We are glad to see you are alive, Jedi, if only so we can collect the full bounty on your kind," the droid in the middle, presumably the leader, said. "Query: What is it that you are doing in the polar regions? Our sensors have not picked up any lifesigns. Statement: We will enjoy torturing the answer to that question out of you later."

"Gotta catch me first," Teri taunted. "And seeing as the one of you on Peragus couldn't do that, I doubt even three will be able to. You won't take me without a fight."

"Resignation: Very well, Jedi. If we must inflict pain upon you and your companions, we will do so."

"Eat snow, boltbrain!" I yelled, throwing my snowball. It hit him where his head joined his body and began to melt.

Teri looked at me. "What..." She began.

"When the snow hits it turns to water! Enough water means the buckets of bolts will short-circuit!"

I grabbed a double handful of snow and ran over to the closest, then dropped it on him. Still running, I looked back over my shoulder to see it sparking at the neck, so I turned around and sliced its head off. It released a huge shower of sparks as its body fell to the ground. Teri and Kreia had taken care of the middle droid and Atton was already attacking the last one. I grabbed more snow, made a snowball and fired. It hit his solid torso.

I shrugged. "So much for that." Atton then downed it with a shot to the head.

"Too easy," Teri said as she scouted for usable equipment on the droids. "Is that all?"

"That and the cold," I replied. "We've got to find shelter before we freeze." I could see a hut-like shape on the plateau. "Maybe we can go in there."

"First, where's Bao?"

"I don't know, but we have to get out of the cold."

She stood there a moment, indecisive, then nodded. "Let's go."

We ran over into the hut and closed the door, not even realizing it was a turbolift until it started moving.

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><p><strong>AN**: Well, there goes my goal of finishing Telos by Victoria Day. Oh well. If I can make the fic better by taking more time to write it, I'll do that.

And now something important pertaining to the next chapter: I had a thought that mabe I should write it from two different viewpoints, mine and Teri's, and I wanted to see what you guys thought. You have three days, until this coming Tuesday (22 May), before I start writing the next chapter to put in your opinion. Go!

Pleas review! Ghostreaders will be prosecuted! And I need your feedback for the next chapter, anyway. So leave a comment, even if you hate it! Most reviews will be replied to as well! Thanks to my two anonymous reviewers, your comments made my day. All of them do.


	12. Problems from the Past

**A/N**: Okay, ladies, gentlemen and others. Here is the chapter you've all been waiting for: the chapter that switches from my point of view to another character's. I received a grand total of three votes to do it and zero votes not to, so here it is. The two parts of the chapter happen at the same time, just so you know. For all it matters, you could go down and read my part first, then scroll back up and read Teri's.

I'm done. Read now.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

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><p>Chapter 11<p>

Problems From the Past

As the door to the turbolift opened, some women leveled force pikes at us.

_Oh frag,_ I thought. _What now?_

"Lay down your weapons, and you shall not be harmed," one of them said.

"Do as they say. I sense we will come to no harm," Kreia told me urgently.

"I don't know," Laura replied. "They are holding weapons, and they are pointing them at us, and we all know how _that_ usually ends up."

"I will not warn you again," the woman said. "Drop your weapons, or we shall take them from you."

"Put them down," I said. "It'll be fine, I hope." I noticed one of the women walk off somewhere else.

"That's reassuring," Laura muttered, but lay her vibrosword and spare vibroblade at her feet. The rest of us did the same with our weapons.

When there was a nice pile of blasters and melee weapons at our feet, the woman returned. "Take these three to prison," she said, indicating my companions. "Our mistress wishes to speak to you alone." This was directed at me.

"Ugh, not prison again. But I think you drew the short straw this time," Laura told me. "Be careful." Then the women led them off, stopping me from asking Laura what she meant by "the short straw". I'd ask her later, I decided.

The women brought me into a room that looked like the council chamber on Dantooine. I shuddered at the memories of that day that rose, unbidden, in my mind.

I was brought out of my memories by the sound of a door opening. I looked towards the source of the sound - a door up a ramp. Someone walked out of the door towards me, and I didn't realize until she was in the council room that the person was Atris.

_Great. This is really going to make my day._

"I did not expect to see you again after the day of your sentencing," Atris said, in that ever-irritating accent. "I thought you had taken the exile's path, wandering the galaxy. Yet you have returned. Why?"

"Tell me what you've done with my friends first," I replied.

"Your concern is noted... Your friends have not been harmed. They have been detained, for their safety." I snorted and she scowled at me, more than usually, anyway. "I thought you had forsaken the company of others after the war. Companions or not, your arrival here begs an explanation."

"It was not my intention to come here, Atris... or see you again," I added under my breath.

"And yet, here you are." She waited for an explanation.

"The Force brought me here."

"The Force no longer guides your movements. You lost your connection to it when you fell. Perhaps you feel that the Force led you to the Mandalorian Wars as well. But in truth it only led to your exile."

"I could not stand by and allow innocents to die in the Outer Rim."

"So you said, so long ago. I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. You sought adventure, you hungered for battle. You could not wait to follow Revan to war. The Jedi Order asked only for time to assess the Mandalorian threat. They urged caution, patience." _They?_ "And you defied them. So when you returned, you were brought before us. You were a Jedi no longer. And so you were exiled."

"I also recall you wished me imprisoned... or worse."

"There was much about that day that was difficult to forget. Your words... your tone... and when you stabbed your lightsaber into the center stone." She activated a lightsaber, both blades. It was the same colour I remembered it, a glowing viridian. My lightsaber. The very same one I built when I was thirteen, a newly accepted Padawan, and the same one I brought to war. "I have kept it, so I would never forget."

"That's my lightsaber!" I exclaimed, a little angrily. What right did she have to carry it?

"Indeed. A lightsaber is the mark of a Jedi. When you turned your back on the Order, it was not yours anymore. I have always kept it, as a reminder of what can happen when you let your passions dictate your actions."

"Never really stopped you, did it?" I interrupted. "You asked the rest of the council to imprison me for your hate." If looks could kill... Vrook would probably have killed me a long time ago, but the one I was getting now from Atris would have beaten him out and sent me directly to the lowest part of the afterlife. "Anyway, if I became a Jedi again, would you give it back?"

"Become a Jedi again?" She sounded scandalized. "That is a thing far out of reach. But I am not unsympathetic to you feelings." _How can you be sympathetic to my feelings when you don't have any?_ "Leaving the Order must have been difficult for you. Yet you gave the Council no choice. You gave me no choice," she added quietly.

"I'm not here to debate the Council's decision. What's done is done."

"Indeed? Very well. Your exile has given you some wisdom, at least." She seemed a bit doubtful of that. It was kind of insulting, really. "So then answer me - how did you find this place? And why have you returned after all this time?"

"I am looking for my ship so I can leave Telos. Hopefully for good," I muttered under my breath.

"Your ship... ah, the Ebon Hawk. It is not your ship. Unless you are admitting to the destruction of the Peragus Mining Facility."

I shuddered. Why did people have to keep reminding me of that hellhole? "The destruction of Peragus was an accident."

"Ah. An accident. Something beyond your control." Her voice grew harder. "You have not changed. Putting yourself before the galaxy, before the Jedi. Do you know what you have done?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

"Without the fuel from Peragus, Citadel Station cannot maintain its orbit. It will crash into the planet, and its destruction will echo across twenty other worlds."

"What do you mean?"

"Telos was a test, to see if the Republic could mount a restoration effort on the Outer Rim. When it fails, the Republic will not finance another. The other Rim world devastated by the Sith will remain graveyard worlds, devoid of life. And that is the magnitude of your crime."

"It's almost as bad as the Jedi letting the Outer Rim die during the Mandalorian Wars," I countered.

"So you still hold to your flawed convictions. If you think to anger me, you are wrong." _From where I'm standing, it sure doesn't sound like it._ "How is it that you are not content to confine your ruin to yourself - that you must spread it to others wherever you go? Ruin yourself with your actions if you will, but when your actions bring harm to others, then you must answer for it."

"So now I get blamed for the actions of the Sith?"

"The Sith? What do you mean?"

"The Sith have returned... and they are hunting all Jedi," I explained.

"You speak truly... you have encountered the Sith. I can feel the scars on you." She looked at me closely. "Tell me - where did you encounter them?"

"They came for me on Peragus, to kill me."

"Peragus... What would they want there? They can't have been looking for you."

_Wanna__ bet?_ "They believe me to be the last Jedi."

She would have snorted with contempt if she wasn't Atris, one of the prissiest Jedi ever. After Bastila Shan, of course. As it was, her face gave the impression that she would be looking down on the Sith from her lofty pedestal if they were here. I stifled a laugh at the image of Darth Sleeps-with-vibroblades cowering at Atris' stern look.

"You? If they thought you a Jedi, then the teachings of the Sith blind them indeed. I am the last Jedi, not you. You betrayed our teachings, our beliefs... the very core of the Jedi Order. If these Sith attacked you, they will soon realize their mistake. And if you escaped... They likely let you go, to see if you would lead them here."

"There must be other Jedi." _Please, so she can die and there can still be Jedi besides me and Kreia..._

"I said I was the last of the Jedi, exile, and I did not speak falsely," she snapped. "There are others who were once Jedi, but no longer. They will not take action against this threat."

"And you will? There's a change."

She turned a bright red colour and shook in anger. "I have had enough of you! I have your ship. Take it and leave. Immediately."

"Where are my companions?"

"You will find them north of here, in one of the old irrigation chambers. They have not been harmed. Take them with you when you leave."

"I'm going."

"Take your ship then - I don't care where you go, just leave this place, leave Telos."

"I guess it's a little late to say I'm going to help, then." I left. As I walked out of the chamber, one of the handmaidens gave me a death glare. I ignored it.

I wandered the place for a few minutes. I'd say I was exploring, but I actually had no idea where I was going. I asked one of the handmaidens for directions to the prison cells. She told me where they were, and warned me about Atton.

"Your male companion could have caused us some trouble, but he chose to cooperate."

"Who? Atton? Where would he have learned Echani skills?"

"If the source truly is a mystery to you, perhaps you should ask him yourself. It is always good to know those that one travels with."

"Perhaps I will. Thank you." I thought about that for a moment. I wondered what else I didn't know about Atton. Hopefully it wasn't anything really important, but who knows?

Come to think of it, I didn't really know anything about the others either. Kreia was an enigma. I doubted I'd ever know anything about her, really, besides her Sith past. Bao-Dur I knew a bit about, since we'd been pretty friendly during the war. T3 was a mystery as well. And Laura... She was just strange. She seemed to know more than she let on about the galaxy, in some areas. She'd have a lot of explaining to do later.

I snapped out of my thoughts. I would ask her later, but right now we just needed to get out of here. I touched the controls for the prison door and opened it.

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><p>(<strong>AN**: Now, back to my point of view.)

The turbolift door opened and we walked out. It closed ominously behind us, then it locked.

Women with white hair - handmaidens - came up in front of us. Teri tensed and Atton dropped into a fighting position.

"Lay down your weapons, and you shall not be harmed," one of them told us.

"Do as they say. I sense we shall come to no harm," Kreia urged Teri.

"I don't know," I said, uneasy. "They are carrying force pikes, and they are aiming them at us, and we all know how well _that_ usually ends up."

"I will not ask again. Drop your weapons."

"Put them down," Teri said. "It'll be fine, I hope."

_You hope?_ I thought. "That's reassuring." I put my vibrosword and blade on the ground, then dropped the blaster that I had picked up off of a dead mercenary.

When all our weapons were in a pile in the middle of the floor, one of the women gestured to Atton, Kreia and me. "Take these three to the cells. Our mistress wishes to speak with you alone." This last remark was directed at Teri.

_Atris_, I thought. _Atris is who they're talking about. Maybe I should warn her somehow... but how?_ "Ugh, not prison again," I muttered. "But I think you drew the short straw this time. Be careful." Then the Handmaidens led us away.

They took us into a room full of force cages and locked us up. _Third time in a month. This must be a new record._

"Why is it that everywhere we go, I end up in a cell?" Atton complained." I mean, why did they lock us up? What is this place?"

"It is a training ground. For Jedi," Kreia replied.

"What? This ice hole?" Atton was clearly skeptical.

"Yes. It bears the semblance of an academy... but where are all the students? Curious."

"You've got to be joking. What is a Jedi academy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Atton sounded like he was beginning to panic.

"It is a place hidden from the rest of the galaxy, like the academy on Dantooine. But this place... Ah, Atris you have been clever."

"Atris?"

"It's none of your concern."

"Well, the sooner we're outta here, the better. Two crazy Jedi are more than enough for me. No one told me we were gonna be dumped in a nest of them."

"And what is it about this place that causes you such fear?" Her voice showed genuine curiosity, the first I'd ever heard from her.

"What do you mean? We're in the middle of a bunch of Jedi. You know how they are." His voice was guarded, cautious. He clearly didn't want to tell her more.

"No, I do not... not in the way you seem to." A few seconds later, Atton's head apparently started hurting, because he grabbed it.

"What are you doing? Get out of my head!" He snarled.

"Stop struggling..." Kreia murmured. "Let me follow the current deep, deeper... to its source."

"Stop... stop!" He groaned in pain. I felt terrible for him, seeing as I would probably feel the same way if the old witch was forcing her way into my head. I didn't voice my pity, though. I knew he wasn't interested.

"Ah, with the fear... is mingled guilt... it squirms in you like a worm. And the why... Ah, there is its heart."

Atton was almost on his knees, face screwed up in pain; Kreia was calm, almost as if they were talking about the weather, or something.

"You surprise me. I could not feel it before." I had never really understood what she was talking about before, but now I knew: she was talking about Atton's Force sensitivity. "Your feelings are a powerful shield indeed. Do not worry, Atton. If she is Jedi, she will forgive. And if she is not, she will not care."

"You can't tell her." It sounded like he was almost to the point of begging. "Please... I'm asking you. I don't want her to..."

"Think less of you?" Kreia scoffed. "I hardly think that's possible." It was kind of true. As far as I knew, the only thing Teri felt for Atton was appreciation for his skills, and not a whole lot more.

"Still there is no shame in what you ask. We all wage war with the past. And it leaves its scars. I will not speak of yours, Atton, but there is a price for such things."

"Price? what price?"

"There are those who wage war, and those who follow them. You are a crude thing, murderer, but you have your uses. You know how important this woman we travel with is - even one such as you can feel it. You will serve her... until I release you."

"And if I refuse?"

"You will not. If you do, my silence will be broken. And then, Atton, _you _will be broken." Her voice slipped into a quiet, threatening tone. "You fear the Jedi and rightly so. If Atris were to learn of your... choices, you would never leave this place. But whatever fear you hold of the Jedi, know that if you disobey me, that my punishment will make you beg for the death that has long hounded you."

She raised her hand. "Wipe the fear from your mind. You will not find blind obedience a difficult master. You chose it once. You will learn to embrace it again."

"I don't know how you became such a manipulative old witch, but why a vicious old scow like yourself would even bother with me is a bigger mystery."

"No game of dejarik can be won without pawns... and this may prove to be a very long game.

"You are a slippery one, your mind difficult for even one such as I to read. I suspect the self-loathing that squirms within you gives you a curious strength. Your spirit, as diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you."

She paused for a moment. "I feel you have crossed our path for a reason... perhaps even you, at the right moment, may be able to turn aside disaster. If so, your potential is not yet spent."

"Fine." I think Atton was about as tired of Kreia's long tangents as I was. "I'll be your pawn. But I still think you've got the wrong man."

"Perhaps. But someone has to fly the ship. And the Force is a hard thing to predict. You have crossed our path for a reason. Our path brought us here for a reason... and now I know why. The past is here, and it must be met before the future can be set in motion."

"More Jedi speak. Care to explain?"

"No. I have wasted enough time with you. Sleep, murderer, and be silent." She turned to me as Atton fell to the floor. "And you..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You could repeat all that, but I was listening in the first place, and I couldn't be bothered to listen again anyway. I know how it works. I keep quiet about your plans and stuff, and I might end up finding a way home after all this goes to hell. I wasn't going to say anything, anyway."

"Very well. Be silent. I need no distractions now. A critical moment approaches." She sat down to meditate. I sighed and sat down myself. No matter how nonchalant I acted around her, when Kreia started threatening people, I got scared.

A few minutes later, a pair of handmaidens brought in an unconscious Bao-Dur and put him in a force cage as well.

Teri entered the room a few minutes later. Kreia stood up as she entered.

"Did you find what you came for?"

"That depends. What was I supposed to find here?"

"There was something from your past here, something unresolved. You needed to face it before we could continue our journey."

"The woman here, Atris, was a Jedi Council member when I was exiled. She had wanted to punish me further."

Kreia nodded. "I see it now. The act has left its scars. Be warned. Unresolved events from our past can serve as distractions to us."

"We can talk about it later, on the way out of here."

Bao-Dur, having woken up a minute or two ago, struggled to his feet. "I... am sorry, General. I must have lost consciousness in the crash."

"There's nothing to apologize for, Bao. Are you all right?"

" I'm fine, General. Power has even been restored to my arm." He looked around. "This must be where I was detecting the energy readings, and the drain to the restoration shields. It looks like part of a huge planetary irrigation system. I had been told by the Republic that it was not in use."

" It's definitely not in use by the Republic," Teri replied. "It doesn't matter. Are you well enough to travel?"

"I am, General. If you wish, I may come with you, or I can meet you at the ship."

"Head to the ship and prep it for launch. We're getting out of here as soon as we can." Atton suddenly groaned in his sleep and stirred. Teri looked over. "What happened to him?"

"He is merely sleeping. It seems the journey here has fatigued him."

"Well, he can sleep on the ship. Let's go." She waited for him to fully wake, then announced: "Atton and Laura, you're coming with me. Kreia, meet us at the ship."

"Very well." Teri deactivated the force cages and she and Bao-Dur left.

Teri turned to me. "What did you mean earlier, by 'I think you picked the short straw'?"

"Oh, that comment. On earth little kids sometimes decide who will do something by playing a game involving pieces of grass of a couple different lengths. Each kid picks a piece of grass, and whoever picks the shortest one has to do whatever it was. Usually, the task isn't pleasant."

"But how did you know that whatever was waiting for me was bad?"

Crap, she caught me. "I had a feeling."

"Right..." She looked like she wanted to ask more, but she let it slide for now. I knew that that subject wasn't closed, though.

She turned to Atton instead. He had a look on his face that suggested he still wasn't entirely awake. I almost laughed at how similar I looked before school in the morning.

"Huh? Oh, hey, you're back with us! We were going to go rescue you from those ghost women when... uh, we got locked up." I battled back a snicker. He was still half-asleep for sure.

"Are you okay? You seem a bit out of it."

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?" I held back a laugh as I spoke. "'Cause you look like me in the morning."

"That's funny," he grumbled. "Really hilarious."

"You can go if you want, Atton," Teri said, shooting me a reproachful glance. I ignored it with a roll of my eyes.

"What?"

"You don't have to stay with us. You've done enough."

"Nah, I'm just complaining. I'll stick around until things start going better for you. Who knows? I might end up being useful at some point."

"That's true. And we do need a pilot, anyway. We'll be glad to have you along."

"Wha? Oh, well, thanks. But it's really not that big a deal."

"Sure it is. I have something to ask you besides that."

"Shoot."

"Well one of the Handmaidens told me you know how to fight like an Echani. Is that true?"

"Oh, that. You wouldn't believe how many fights you can avoid by just pretending to know that stuff." He sounded casual, but I noticed his eyes moving a little bit more than usual. I wondered why that was.

"Oh, all right. I just though it could be an asset, that's all."

"Well, thanks, but I'm good at shooting people, cracking wise, and pretending to know how to fight with my hands."

"And drinking," I mumbled. He shot me a look. "What? I've seen the bottle."

"Okay, then," Teri said, rolling her eyes, "let's keep moving." We took the door that Teri hadn't come through, went down a hall through a storage room, down another hallway, and wound up in a room above the hangar where the Ebon Hawk was. More interesting than the view, though, was the droid imprisoned in the middle of the room. It was T3-M4, of course.

Now, we had a party.

"Well, if it isn't the one who stole the Ebon Hawk. Not so smug now, are ya, you little thief?" Atton asked scathingly.

"Don't be an idiot," I said. "Atris and her cronies were the ones who stole the ship, not T3."

"Says you," he muttered.

"Yeah, I do."

T3 beeped something to Teri. "It wasn't your fault they took the ship, T3." Beep. "She what? Downloaded your memory?" Beep. "The link worked both ways?" Beep beep. "We'll check it out later. Head back to the ship." He beeped again as Teri released him and he headed through a door, down a ramp and into the ship.

We looked around for a minute in the room, looting the two plasteel cylinders. When she spotted the workbench, Teri said, "That reminds me. I got our weapons back."

"Excellent," I said as she handed me my blades and blaster.

We decided that it was a good time to get back to the Ebon Hawk at this point. When we got to the ship, Teri went in the direction of the main hold and Atton and I went to the cockpit. The hangar doors opened above us, revealing a snowstorm in the atmosphere. Atton fired up the Hawk's engines and brought us out of the atmosphere and into orbit around Telos. We could hear the others talking - or in T3's case, beeping - in the hold, so we went to go join them.

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><p><strong>AN**: And this chapter marks both the anniversary of the publishing of this story and it entrance into hiatus. Sorry, guys. I just lost motivation for this story. I'll come back to it eventually - I refuse to abandon it, no matter how much I hate it - but for now, I'm not going to work on it.

One more thing. I had a reviewer suggest that I put sexual tension into this story. Just so you know, my parents read this story. I'm only fourteen, so I don't think they'd be too impressed if I did that. This story's staying on the cleaner side of the 'T' spectrum. But thanks for the input.


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